Surrogates – Blu-ray Disc Review
January 22, 2010 – 9:46 PM - Posted by: Danielle ByingtonTags: Boris Kodjoe, Bruce Willis, Devin Ratray, Disney, Jack Noseworthy, James Cromwell, James Francis Ginty, Jonathan Mostow, Michael Cudlitz, Radha Mitchell, Rosamund Pike, Touchstone, Ving Rhames
has an average rating of 6.3 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
are short but ALL in Hi-Def
– 
– 2009
– 89 minutes
– Touchstone (Disney)
– 
This uses 20.4GB for the movies out of 27.3GB total.
Street Date: January 26th, 2010
Overall Verdict – O.K. Film, Great Disc
Buy it for $23.49 @ Amazon.com
— Review written by: Danielle Byington —
The Movie Itself is directed by Jonathan Mostow (“Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines“, “U-571“), with the writing credits of Michael Ferris & John D. Brancato (screenplay), based on the graphic novel involving Robert Venditti & Brett Weldele.
The movie opens with a bit of a prologue to the story in the form of a collage of news report video clips taking us from roughly our day and age to a few years in the future, all to show the progressive technology that has become what is known as a surrogate. In the future setting that the film’s story picks up, the busy buzz of society still exists, only our physical bodies are laying back at home performing all of these tasks through a very life-like robotic surrogate that the human mind can control through what has become common technology involving a system that sends and receives neurological frequencies that provide us with a voyeuristic real-time experience of sight, sound, and if you fork out some cash for upgrades, the sensation of touch. Swallowing all of that information, your mind most likely begins a vague hypothetical run-down of all the possibilities, and you perhaps realize that though the “pro’s” could be amazing, may be there are some draw backs.
At least the “con’s” are what the Dreads see to be as more significant, being a rebellious brigade of “humans only” who oppose society’s viral usage of surrogates. As any anti-something organization acts, the Dreads, led by a man who is only known as The Prophet (Ving Rhames), are seeking the head of the surrogacy system’s creation, Dr. Canter (James Cromwell). Canter of course encourages his own son to make use of the family’s wealth of surrogates, loaning him a robotic extension to attend an opera. Of course, being a college student and all, Canter‘s son has a change of heart about attending the opera, and opts to venture to a club. No matter his venue of recreational choice, it seems a “meat-bag” from the Dreads was set on assassinating not only young Canter‘s surrogate, but with the weapon powered by technology at-hand, also murdering the user.
A murder may seem typical in a plotline involving action and crime, though, ever since the widespread use of surrogates has taken hold of the population, crimes such as these have become nearly non-existent; really, what is the point of attempting to put someone out if there is a possibility they are only a surrogate, leaving the intended victim (user) unharmed? Jumping right into the case is agent Tom Greer (Bruce Willis), and his partner, agent Jennifer Peters (Radha Mitchell). The destruction of young Canter‘s surrogate is fairly bewildering to Greer and Peters, especially adding into the mix the fact that the user was also killed. Greer and Peters go on to discuss the investigation with elder Canter, and their pursuit of tracking down the Dreads behind this crime ensues.
In closing, because bits and pieces of this fictional futuristic idea of a neurologically controlled technology does exist in some form or fashion, the general idea of the story is very intriguing as the subject of these robotic surrogates is vaguely within mankind’s grasp; not quite as sophisticated, but it is out there. Given the Director’s previous work, you may feel that a similar “Terminator” series’ essence impacted some of this film’s qualities due to its sci-fi/action nature. A very focused intent was applied by the filmmaker and production members to create and uphold a fictional world ruled by the surrogacy system, from impressive efforts in make-up and special visual effects, casting of “ideal” surrogate extras, and so forth. On a similar note, obviously the action sequences are polished in their choreography as well, and just as mentioned in the virtual round table discussion with Jonathan Mostow, he of course states the complexity of filming one of the chase scenes on the Paramount backlot; as perhaps some of you may have physically walked that territory, I personally have as well, and to recollect that filming location, and see how the filmmaker executed said sequence is rather wowing.
All of those qualities of the movie are definitely worth appreciating, and I say so because moving on, the skeleton of the movie, the actual story, being as redundantly essential to the impressions that this film would make as it is, is moderately frail. All of the curiosity and intrigue reigned by a future of robotic masses may distract your train of thought from the actual bones of the storyline, just as of course lots of car crashes and explosions will do, too. The story seems very bright and well meaning in the first third, but is drowned out by all of the superficial layers of cinematic glitz, leaving this release to be better defined as a watchable ride for the senses. Overall, the movie itself earns a “3.5 Star Rating“.
Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte, dual layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio. As a slightly different start to the video quality for this release, as compared to the typical discussion in our reviews, you may have read our news coverage of the recent “virtual round table” with Jonathan Mostow. The director himself does exhibit a keen interest in the topic of High Definition, and below are two relevant questions I felt pertained to the video quality portion of this review which Jonathan Mostow selected to answer asked by myself and Justin Sluss, respectively:
- “Q: It is mentioned in the bonus features that the makeup effects and visual effects basically worked hand-in-hand in the smoothing look of the robotic surrogate characters; was this perfection that is seen in the final product more challenging than in past productions you have worked on, being that this film was coming to Blu-ray?
Jonathan Mostow: Well certainly Blu-Ray has raised the bar for make-up because high-def shows every facial imperfection, skin pore, etc. And in this movie the bar was even higher because we had to create the illusion that many of theses actors were robots, so we had to erase any facial flaw that could distract from the illusion. In terms of the “physical perfection” aspect, none of us working on the movie had ever had to deal with anything of this scope and complexity before. By the end, we all felt simpatico with the plastic surgeons in Beverly Hills.
Q: Ever have any plans to shoot a film digitally in Hi-Def as opposed to using the traditional 35mm film approach? Namely what do you think about the Red One camera?
Jonathan Mostow: Although I’ve never used it, from what I understand, the Red is a great camera — although, like anything it has its plusses and minuses, which are too technical to get into here. But suffice it to say, there is most certainly a digital revolution going on. Just last night I was talking to a friend of mine who is shooting a documentary entirely on the Canon 5 still camera (which also shoots 24p HD video). I’ve seen some of what he’s done and the stuff looks gorgeous. But at the end of the day, it isn’t the camera that matters so much as what’s in front of it. Surrogates was shot in 35mm for a variety of technical reasons. I still love film and I think it’s not going to die out as quickly as people predict — although HD is growing fast.“
Moving along, it is obvious that definite attention was paid to the robotic aspect of the cast in their portrayals of the surrogates (as mentioned above), and this topic is further touched on in the bonus features. Make-up effects alone were not suffice, and visual effects did do moderate touch-ups that translate perfectly into what the production was aiming for to create this fictional unbelievably perfect surrogate race, with out taking away the reality of the existent detail in surroundings and props. As the film’s story progresses and we see Bruce Willis‘ character transform from his surrogate self, to the physical character of Tom Greer, the smoothed visual effects become absent with his on-screen presence, and the abundant detail on this Blu-ray release takes its stand as seen in the crisp shots displaying facial close-ups depicting the age-features of Bruce Willis, beard stubble, and so forth. The character portrayed by Ving Rhames is another excellent example of an individual on-screen who is intended to translate to the audience as a human. It is interesting to see this applied effect in the film with surrogate characters on-screen, and for most who are familiar with things such as DNR, would like to automatically assume that a Digital Noise Reduction filter was used; however, upon further inspection of scenes (which are often displayed in dutch angles, something that actually worked really well for this film), you will notice that film grain is retained, and the textures of the surrogate characters’ wardrobe also bare obvious detail.
Tackling the basics of this release’s video quality, this picture has a very inky black level, as it also possesses the appearance of heightened sharpness, accompanied by a rich and vibrant color palette; all in all, this offers a really crisp and clean look. Portions of the film do use more of a warm filter, such as in the chase scene between Tom Greer and the Dreads, which is really the only point that fleshtones translate into more of a peachy hue; otherwise, fleshtones are accurate in all other sequences. The CG and other special effects applied to this production translate well in High Definition, adding extra flawlessness to an already well-established picture quality. The exterior shots as seen during Tom Greer‘s first walk through the outside world as himself rather than his surrogate, as well as his confrontation with The Prophet, are notably some of the highest points of the video quality’s best display within the release’s runtime, providing the keenest definition and overall clarity seen in the film. Overall, the video quality of this release is certainly strong and pleasing in its Hi-Def presentation, receiving a “4.5 Star Rating“.
Audio Quality on this release is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio Surround. As you may imagine, this Sci-Fi flick has its fair share of action sequences, which are the primarily content for some really kicking experiences within this release’s audio track. As the first large chase scene in the film endures, the fleeting roar of speeding vehicles and the pursuing helicopter all flutter about the soundscape respectively to the action seen on-screen. The sound design of this and other bold audible moments found on this release are certain evidence of a great effort put forth to complete the intended and well-played adrenaline-rush-feel. These mentioned audio highlights provide intense LFE usage, and most noticeably a very impressive amount of panning; for example, the chase scene discussed above exhibits all expected foley with brightness and clarity, as it smoothly transitions from left to right channels, and also never rests in solely the front channels.
However, the entire film does not rely on loudness and noise to convey its story, and these remaining pieces of the movie are not of any less audio quality, despite a less aggressive amount of audible content performance. Dialogue is pristine, and is conveyed from primarily the center front channel never presenting any flaws of suffocating under climatic 5.1 occurrences. Even smaller sound effects during these potentially quiet scenes make intelligent use of the soundscape, as can be witnessed in a scene where Tom Greer breaks an electric-shock drug device used by the surrogates, creating a bright crackle/shatter of glass that pops-up from the right rear channel. Also accompanying the movie’s duration is the original score composed by Richard Marvin (composer for television shows “The O.C.“, and “Six Feet Under“), which provides a fulfilling presence from all channels, including subwoofer usage, and rich sounds of string instruments from the front and rear channels. This is definitely an exciting audio track to experience, and this release’s “bang” is worth the bucks as it overall receives a “5 Star Rating“.
Bonus Materials on this release are presented in High Definition, using Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo.
- “Audio Commentary“
- “A More Perfect You: The Science of ‘Surrogates‘” (14:34) is a brief documentary styled feature that discusses much of the real life technology we have in the world today that inspired some of the ideas seen in the film.
- “Breaking the Frame: A Graphic Novel Comes to Life” (6:33) gives viewers a look at the illustrated visuals taken from the graphic novel, and compares them to many scenes from within the film.
- “Deleted Scenes” (5:15) includes 4 scenes.
- “‘I Will Not Bow‘ Music Video by Breaking Benjamin” (3:49)
Blu-ray Disc packaging:
Screenshots:
NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.
