SURROGATES: EMPTY FUTURE, EMPTY FILM
October 1st 2009 09:30
Bruce Willis stars as Agent Tom Greer in Surrogates.
In the sci-fi genre, graphic novel adaptations are the new rage. There was V for Vendetta in 2006 and then Watchmen earlier this year (both cinematic renderings of Alan Moore’s work), and now there’s the Jonathan Mostow-directed Surrogates.
It’s a phenomenon perhaps born out of the age of the Internet. What was previously esoteric has, through the power of the blogosphere, moved closer towards mainstream consciousness, giving film producers the critical mass they need to approach the big studios.
But while epic works such as V for Vendetta and Watchmen provide spectacular grist for a slice of celluloid, they’re only ever going to be as good as the final adaptation. Watchmen illustrated what happens when an adaptation is a prisoner of the online environment that gave it legs: the filmmakers, in an effort to connect with the fans, created such a studied frame-for-frame remake of the graphic novel that they forgot to capture the true heart of the story. The result was a cumbersome and uninvolving film.
It’s a problem that to a large degree also debilitates Surrogates, the latest graphic novel big screen adaptation to hit the cinemas. Taken from the book written by Robert Venditti and illustrated by Brett Weldale, Surrogates rearranges the cards of its source material, but fails to change the deck.
In the near future humankind has largely given up leaving the house, with people instead plugging themselves into surrogates, attractive robotic avatars that provide the sensory gateway both to life’s tasks and pleasures. It has created a world where there is little crime or death, and people can seemingly be anything or anybody they want.
Against this background, an FBI investigation is being conducted into the murder of the son of Dr Lionel Canter (James Cromwell), the inventor of surrogates. Canter’s son died as a result of an attack on his surrogate, an unheard of phenomenon in this seemingly safe world and one likely to cause panic if word spreads beyond the Bureau.
Heading the investigation is Tom Greer (Bruce Willis), an agent wrestling with own demons, having become estranged from both the synthetic world in which he lives and his own wife, a surrogate addict since the death of their son some years earlier. And Greer’s job is made harder when his own surrogate is destroyed while pursuing a suspect, forcing him to complete the investigation without proxy.
It’s solid material, and in the few years of its existence the graphic novel has built a strong name for itself. But the film adaptation pails by comparison, suffering from a po-faced treatment and weak script.
In penning their screenplay, writers John Brancato and Michael Ferris have failed to distance themselves adequately from the graphic novel, attempting to cram in too much of the narrative and not enough of the character. For the first time in years you could say that a feature film was perhaps too short, as plot development and supporting characters are trampled underneath a need to race to the finish. The novel is a dense piece of fiction, and a successful transition to screen was always going to depend on stripping it down and rebuilding it appropriately. But Brancato and Ferris have instead opted to try and cram in as much of the book as possible, making for a murky plot and cardboard cut-out characters.
Afterburner remains popular in the near future.
There’s also absolutely no fun associated with the film. Having Greer running about in a surrogate-dominated world is a ticket to all sorts of mayhem, but the filmmakers fail to cash-in, briskly pushing their hero through the procedural narrative. Just because the film attempts to deal with some potent subtexts and themes (succeeding only a small percentage of the time) doesn’t mean it has to abandon the gold that could come flowing out of its central premise.
The players do their best with the flimsy material they’ve been dealt, but it’s hard to rise above such paper-thin stuff. It’s easy to put Willis’s early flatness down to his surrogate self – where it looks like he's wearing a leftover disguise from The Jackal – but things don’t really change once he’s walking the pavement ‘meat bag’ style. At one point, about a quarter of the way through, he opens up, delivering a stabbing line like only John McClane could, and it makes you sigh with relief simply to see a flash of humanity in such a moribund film. The rest of the cast barely get a chance to make an impact, although Rosamund Pike does her best as Greer’s suffering wife, Maggie.
In the end, Surrogates simply serves as an example of how not to adapt a graphic novel. This had the potential to be a great film, but its makers, in their attempt to cram in as much of the source material as possible, simply managed to distance themselves and the audience from the fantastic central premise. Surrogates is hard to recommend, with a trip to Amazon to purchase the book being a much better way to spend both your time and money.
Check out the trailer for Surrogates below:
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Mountain Fog
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
Comment by Matt Shea
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
I was looking forward to seeing this, now I am forewarned, which is just as well, as I will not have high expectations.
I am now wondering whether I should drag out my old sci fi script and start work on it again... it involved kind of surrogates too.
A very detailed review, good stuff.
cheers
fog
Comment by Matt Shea
Comment by Michelle Sweeney
Competition Queen
Comment by Matt Shea