Surrogates - of 5

Well this certainly had an interesting premise that sucked me in right away, but the execution didn't hold me at all. This is the world (or America?) in the not so distant future, and the majority of people have surrogate robots that go out into the world so no one has to ever worry about not "being safe" anymore.

After a murder happens, the first in fifteen years or so, Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) is on the case in hopes to catch the murderer. The movie starts to derail shortly after. It just becomes another run of the mill sci-fi thriller when the premise allowed for so much more.

I got the feeling that the budget wasn't allowed to get too high on this because at times it looked like a b-movie SyFy (Why isn't it still SciFi?! Things that make you go hmmm.) would show on a Saturday afternoon. I think in the hands of a Brian Singer or a Joss Whedon with a significant budget Surrogates could be a great movie with elements of Fahrenheit 451, social technology making us less social somehow, and paronoia intertwined with the sci-fi future and society.

Anyways, if you like sci-fi, I'd say it's worth a rental, but go into it with low expectations. I heard the graphic novel of the same name is really good. I'd like to read it and see if it's better than this average movie.