Step 1: Throw away the Blackberry? Surrogates is yet another serviceable sci-fi whodunit about how our dependency on technology will be the ruin of us all.
Step 2: Fire up the “stim chair!” OK, OK, just kidding. Replacing ourselves with perfect robot surrogates so we don’t ever have to leave the house or have any kind of human interaction is bad; we get it. But in the not-so-distant future world of Surrogates, it’s all the rage. A scientist dude named Canter (James Cromwell) invented these robots that can be operated by brain waves and now, everyone is plugged into their very own stim chair while their surrogate is out living it up. The surrogates can take all the pain and injury, too, but nothing happens to the human host – until now. Surrogate detectives Greer (Bruce Willis) and Peters (Radha Mitchell) stumble upon the murder of two other surrogates, whose humans are also killed at the same time by having their brains fried. In the process of the investigation, Greer’s surrogate is destroyed, so now human Greer has to venture out into the real world to solve the crime – and gain back a little of his humanity.
Step 3: Embrace your imperfections. All the surrogates in the film are in shape, air brushed and 
coiffed most exquisitely, while the humans operating them are pale, blotchy, fat, dark circles under their eyes – except for Bruce Willis, of course. He, as the real Greer, is far more attractive than his blonde-headed surrogate. Maybe that’s just me – I like my Bruce bald and manly. He plays Greer as the action guy who is also in a mid-life crisis. You see, Greer and his wife, portrayed nicely by Rosamund Pike, have lost a child and escape the hurt by becoming addicted to their surrogates. But now Greer wants to reconnect with his wife and sees the harm in surrogacy.
Step 4: Don’t always paint by the numbers. Surrogates could have been a lot cooler if they delved more deeply into the surrogacy vs. humanity aspects and our basic need to reach out and touch someone, which is probably what the graphic novel, on which Surrogates is based, does. None of the characters are very well developed in the film. You’re not invested in whether the human race breaks out their isolation to grab a Coke and a smile. Director Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3) instead turns it into another generic sci-fi crime thriller, a la Minority Report or I, Robot . It works OK, but you feel they forgot the point.
Level of difficulty in watching Surrogates: Moderately easy. Certainly nothing new and different, but it’s always good to see Bruce Willis kick some ass.