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Disney has obviously cornered the market in comic book adaptations ever since it acquired Marvel in a multi-billion dollar deal, but that’s only one of the many reasons why nobody remembers the Mouse House making a rare foray into the genre of its own accord with 2009’s Surrogates.
Despite boasting Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines director Jonathan Mostow behind the camera and Bruce Willis in the lead role, to say the intriguing $80 million blockbuster didn’t leave much of an impression would be an understatement of colossal proportions.
Topping out at $122 million at the box office, it wasn’t exactly a flop, nor was it anything approaching a success. Reviews were equally tepid from both critics and crowds alike, which was a source of serious frustration given that its concept could have secured it some longevity if it wasn’t executed in such mundane and lifeless fashion.
In the near future, a large section of society – as in, those who can afford it – have barricaded themselves indoors and allowed the idyllic representation of themselves to live out their daily lives in the real world, only for that perfect existence to be shattered irrevocably when somebody gets murdered for the first time in a decade.
The parallels between the surrogates and the way in which modern internet culture has everybody curating the most picturesque facade of their existence and presenting it to the world as nothing less than perfect was nowhere near as prevalent 14 years ago as it is now, it’s just a shame the movie wasn’t good enough to be remembered for being ahead of its time.
That being said, FlixPatrol has named it as one of the most-watched titles on iTunes, so maybe Surrogates is about to enjoy a new wave of adulation for its prescience.