{"id":298,"date":"2009-09-25T17:07:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-25T17:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2009\/09\/die-hard-droids-surrogates-movie-review.html"},"modified":"2009-09-25T17:07:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-25T17:07:00","slug":"die-hard-droids-surrogates-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2009\/09\/die-hard-droids-surrogates-movie-review.html","title":{"rendered":"Die Hard, Droids! ‘Surrogates’ Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
<\/a><\/div>\n

At what point does technology begin to replace the real human experience? Perhaps I\u2019m the wrong person to ask, being the Facebook junkie, Twitter-holic and Wii Sports lover that I am.
<\/a>In Surrogates<\/em>, the latest in a long line of films to tackle the tech-run-rampant theme,\u00a0moviegoers are presented with this dilemma in a future world inhabited by sleek robots connected remotely to the sloppier, human versions of themselves who \u201cplug in\u201d at home and live daily life vicariously through their robotic selves.<\/p>\n

From the beginning, you can tell that Agent Greer (Bruce Willis) is uncomfortable with the trade-off, prompted in part by his wife\u2019s refusal to unplug and have any person-to-person contact. As he investigates the first ever surrogate to human homicide, he wades through an anti-surrogate human resistance led by \u201cThe Prophet\u201d (Ving Rhames) and a conspiracy involving the corporation supplying the machines (shades of I, Robot<\/em>).<\/p>\n

The audience is expected to empathize with his plight, but at the screening I attended, it seemed several people (myself included) were busy caught up in the idea of how far we\u2019d jump and how fast we\u2019d run if we had our own alternate selves: \u201cYou can do anything and you won\u2019t get hurt.\u201d While Greer intensely wrestles with his conscience, I was imagining virtual DeWayne snowboarding down the Swiss Alps. Surrogates<\/em>, you had me at \u201cplug in.\u201d
<\/span><\/p>\n

Not to say I didn\u2019t have any questions. For one thing, there are a lot of cars in this film. Despite us witnessing surrogates running faster than Flo-Jo at times, these virtual beings travel mostly by automobile. You mean to tell me I have to buy a surrogate and a car for him to ride around in? Speaking of costs, in this future, 99 percent of the world\u2019s population use surrogates. So pretty much everyone in the world can afford one if they want?<\/div>\n
No matter how cool and easy it may seem to use surrogates, the ultimate struggle is whether or not to unplug and face reality. Crime in the surrogate world is almost nonexistent and everyone gets along (shades of\u00a0Minority Report<\/em>). So obviously, there has to be something wrong beneath all of that perfection. The problem, the film supposes, is the addiction to those ageless, shiny, glossy, beautiful surrogates (if you think it\u2019s a tad ironic for a Hollywood film to suggest that, welcome to the club).<\/div>\n
It\u2019s also peculiar that the film is released the same week Honda unveiled its U3-X, a new personal mobility device in the same vein as the Segway but smaller and more affordable. Will the new devices allow its users to go where they can\u2019t currently go and be used to their most noble intentions; or will they become a crutch, descending society farther into a technologically augmented existence?<\/div>\n
I\u2019m uncomfortable making such a blanket judgment for everyone. But at least for the hour and a half while watching this science fiction thriller, it\u2019s an issue you\u2019ll both wrestle with and, in most cases, be entertained by.<\/div>\n
Surrogates<\/em>\u00a0is rated PG-13 for action violence, which is mostly machine related (little blood), brief sensuality, language and a scene of \u201cdrug\u201d use (in surrogates world, it\u2019s an electrical spark).<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At what point does technology begin to replace the real human experience? Perhaps I\u2019m the wrong person to ask, being the Facebook junkie, Twitter-holic and Wii Sports lover that I am.In Surrogates, the latest in a long line of films to tackle the tech-run-rampant theme,\u00a0moviegoers are presented with this dilemma in a future world inhabited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2815,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nDie Hard, Droids! 'Surrogates' Movie Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At what point does technology begin to replace the real human experience? Perhaps I'm the wrong person to ask, being the Facebook junkie, Twitter-holic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2009\/09\/die-hard-droids-surrogates-movie-review.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Die Hard, Droids! 'Surrogates' Movie Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At what point does technology begin to replace the real human experience? Perhaps I'm the wrong person to ask, being the Facebook junkie, Twitter-holic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2009\/09\/die-hard-droids-surrogates-movie-review.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Reel Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dewaynehamby\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-25T17:07:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/charismamag.com\/images\/stories\/newsletters\/thebuzz2\/surro.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"DeWayne Hamby\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@dewaynehamby\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@dewaynehamby\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"DeWayne Hamby\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2009\/09\/die-hard-droids-surrogates-movie-review.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2009\/09\/die-hard-droids-surrogates-movie-review.html\",\"name\":\"Die Hard, Droids! 'Surrogates' Movie Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-09-25T17:07:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-09-25T17:07:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/7c2f078f578d8a98ba8dc3f2dad0632e\"},\"description\":\"At what point does technology begin to replace the real human experience? Perhaps I'm the wrong person to ask, being the Facebook junkie, Twitter-holic\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2009\/09\/die-hard-droids-surrogates-movie-review.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2009\/09\/die-hard-droids-surrogates-movie-review.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2009\/09\/die-hard-droids-surrogates-movie-review.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Die Hard, Droids! ‘Surrogates’ Movie Review\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/\",\"name\":\"Reel Faith\",\"description\":\"News and notes on faith in popular culture\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/7c2f078f578d8a98ba8dc3f2dad0632e\",\"name\":\"DeWayne Hamby\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3aec351f57e304d60b5ad6f6b589ee89?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3aec351f57e304d60b5ad6f6b589ee89?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"DeWayne Hamby\"},\"description\":\"As a journalist for more than 20 years, DeWayne Hamby has covered the worlds of church and culture for a variety of publications and websites, including Charisma, Ministry Today, New Man, and Christian Retailing. He and his wife, LeAnn, live in Tennessee with their three daughters. Connect with DeWayne on social media\u2014http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dewaynehamby and www.twitter.com\/dewaynehamby.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.dewaynehamby.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/author\/dhamby\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Die Hard, Droids! 'Surrogates' Movie Review","description":"At what point does technology begin to replace the real human experience? Perhaps I'm the wrong person to ask, being the Facebook junkie, Twitter-holic","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2009\/09\/die-hard-droids-surrogates-movie-review.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Die Hard, Droids! 'Surrogates' Movie Review","og_description":"At what point does technology begin to replace the real human experience? Perhaps I'm the wrong person to ask, being the Facebook junkie, Twitter-holic","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2009\/09\/die-hard-droids-surrogates-movie-review.html","og_site_name":"Reel Faith","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dewaynehamby","article_published_time":"2009-09-25T17:07:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/charismamag.com\/images\/stories\/newsletters\/thebuzz2\/surro.jpg"}],"author":"DeWayne Hamby","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@dewaynehamby","twitter_site":"@dewaynehamby","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"DeWayne Hamby","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2009\/09\/die-hard-droids-surrogates-movie-review.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2009\/09\/die-hard-droids-surrogates-movie-review.html","name":"Die Hard, Droids! 'Surrogates' Movie Review","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-09-25T17:07:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-09-25T17:07:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/7c2f078f578d8a98ba8dc3f2dad0632e"},"description":"At what point does technology begin to replace the real human experience? Perhaps I'm the wrong person to ask, being the Facebook junkie, Twitter-holic","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2009\/09\/die-hard-droids-surrogates-movie-review.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2009\/09\/die-hard-droids-surrogates-movie-review.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2009\/09\/die-hard-droids-surrogates-movie-review.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Die Hard, Droids! ‘Surrogates’ Movie Review"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/","name":"Reel Faith","description":"News and notes on faith in popular culture","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/7c2f078f578d8a98ba8dc3f2dad0632e","name":"DeWayne Hamby","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3aec351f57e304d60b5ad6f6b589ee89?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3aec351f57e304d60b5ad6f6b589ee89?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"DeWayne Hamby"},"description":"As a journalist for more than 20 years, DeWayne Hamby has covered the worlds of church and culture for a variety of publications and websites, including Charisma, Ministry Today, New Man, and Christian Retailing. He and his wife, LeAnn, live in Tennessee with their three daughters. Connect with DeWayne on social media\u2014http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dewaynehamby and www.twitter.com\/dewaynehamby.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.dewaynehamby.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/author\/dhamby"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2815"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}