Since this is my first ever review for The Peanut Gallery (the old ones doesn't count as it was written in my personal blog), I am going to change the format a little bit by going with a more systematic approach. So here goes:
Ever had that feeling that you wished to have a copy of you doing all the dirty work for you while you just sit in a room an control him/her with only your brain? Free from crime, fear, discrimination and pain, you live life with zero consequences where even if your robotic copy died you can always start over by buying another replacement. Is this the utopia that we human beings want for our future? This is the question Surrogates asked.
Story
The premises that Surrogates wants to explore is something which had the potential of being an awesome Sci-fi flick if given the hands of a capable scriptwriter and director. Instead of provoking the minds of the audience like how a great Sci-fi movie should be (ie. Children of Men, Minority Report and even 28 Days Later), the scriptwriters opt for the more dumb down approach to attract a more "mainstream" audience.
What we get from this is a very predictable plot of a FBI agent investigating a conspiracy against society. Or if you are an anime fan, imagine a retard version of Ghost in a Shell. Plot twists have minimal impact as they are unraveled quite hastily. Character development is flat as we don't feel or really care about the characters on screen. Its amazing how Up could do it in just 10 minutes and with minimal dialog! Overall, the story is weak but still not to the point of hopelessness. Well at least the ending is quite decent.
Acting
Acting is passable. As usual Bruce Willis is doing a "Die Hard" on action scenes and a "Six Sense" on dramatic scenes. Nothing noteworthy here or outstanding here. Supporting casts don't really catch my eye except for maybe Ving Rhames cool Bob Marley look as The Prophet.
Direction
The movie itself feels a little flat. As the pacing is a bit off while the movie tries to explore the characters more which unfortunately only seems to slow the movie down as it fails to invoke any sort of emotion we had on the characters. The director had failed totally to provoke the audiences thoughts or keep us at the edge of our seats with intense psychological action.
Conclusion
Surrogates is a decent watch as it is quite accessible to most audiences. Standard Hollywood fair, and is definitely better than most of the Summer Blockbuster crap that I had watched this year. At least this movie did not bombard my eyes with overdramatic explosions like some giant robot flick I have the (dis)pleasure to watch.
6 out of 10.
Ever had that feeling that you wished to have a copy of you doing all the dirty work for you while you just sit in a room an control him/her with only your brain? Free from crime, fear, discrimination and pain, you live life with zero consequences where even if your robotic copy died you can always start over by buying another replacement. Is this the utopia that we human beings want for our future? This is the question Surrogates asked.
Story
The premises that Surrogates wants to explore is something which had the potential of being an awesome Sci-fi flick if given the hands of a capable scriptwriter and director. Instead of provoking the minds of the audience like how a great Sci-fi movie should be (ie. Children of Men, Minority Report and even 28 Days Later), the scriptwriters opt for the more dumb down approach to attract a more "mainstream" audience.
What we get from this is a very predictable plot of a FBI agent investigating a conspiracy against society. Or if you are an anime fan, imagine a retard version of Ghost in a Shell. Plot twists have minimal impact as they are unraveled quite hastily. Character development is flat as we don't feel or really care about the characters on screen. Its amazing how Up could do it in just 10 minutes and with minimal dialog! Overall, the story is weak but still not to the point of hopelessness. Well at least the ending is quite decent.
Acting
Acting is passable. As usual Bruce Willis is doing a "Die Hard" on action scenes and a "Six Sense" on dramatic scenes. Nothing noteworthy here or outstanding here. Supporting casts don't really catch my eye except for maybe Ving Rhames cool Bob Marley look as The Prophet.
Direction
The movie itself feels a little flat. As the pacing is a bit off while the movie tries to explore the characters more which unfortunately only seems to slow the movie down as it fails to invoke any sort of emotion we had on the characters. The director had failed totally to provoke the audiences thoughts or keep us at the edge of our seats with intense psychological action.
Conclusion
Surrogates is a decent watch as it is quite accessible to most audiences. Standard Hollywood fair, and is definitely better than most of the Summer Blockbuster crap that I had watched this year. At least this movie did not bombard my eyes with overdramatic explosions like some giant robot flick I have the (dis)pleasure to watch.
6 out of 10.
Bash Transformers in every review would ya :P. And how come I didn't know the Bear Cave opened up a Peanut Gallery!
ReplyDeleteI had been advertising it in Facebook and my MSN status for sometime already >_<
ReplyDeleteUntil Michael Bay or Roland Emmerich is able to produce yet another ultra successful shit of a movie, Transformers will be my punching bag heh...