I was watching Surrogates the other day and realized it had a lot of similarities with fellow sci-fi movie District 9. Both movies take on the subject of discrimination and prejudice, in sci-fi form of course, and the basic idea is more or less the same. In District 9 there are aliens, in Surrogates there are robots. But really, what really got me was that both movies had tremendous potential, but failed to deliver in the end. Yes, even District 9. And since I had nothing better to do, I decided to compare the two in a fight to the death!
Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to our contenders. First in the red corner, newcomer District “Non Human” 9. And in the blue corner former heavyweight champion Surrogates “The Human Robot”. The fight is supervised by a referee (that’s me!) and will be engaged in during a series of one to three-minute rounds. Let’s get ready to rumble!
ROUND # 1
1. PROMOTION
PROMOTIONAL POSTERS
Surrogates marketing team didn’t put as much effort on the content as much as they did on putting Bruce Willis’s (although undeniably charismatic) face on the poster as big as possible (see the poster above). They could have been so much more creative considering the movie’s robolicious content. There were some cool ideas in the teaser posters, but nothing compared to District 9. One of the poster even looks more like a perfume add than a movie poster. District 9′s posters on the other hand are unique, intriguing and interesting. D-9 easily wins this first one.
WEBSITE
Both movies did a very good job with this one. District 9 has an amazing website where you can cruse around the alien reservation camps, watch the news and just basically live inside the world of the movie. I say A+ for effort! Surrogates site wasn’t half bad either. On their site, you could choose your own surrogate. It was actually very cool, but for some unexplainable reason that one interesting bit on the site doesn’t work anymore. I mean come on! Point missed!
TAGLINE
Neither taglines are really that awesome. The good thing about District 9′s tagline is that it doesn’t try to fit into the general standard of your basic tagline and it gives the movie a nice hostile mood. Non the less I decided to go with Surrogates because the tagline actually defines the movie quite perfectly. It’s honest and it’s what you get.
FACEBOOK / TWITTER
It’s very important to have at least these two accounts when you are promoting your film. They are effective and on top of that, they are free. Only thing that costs is your time and effort. I mean, I really shouldn’t have to tell you this. Luckily both film have them. Although I had almost given up on Surrogates having a Twitter account, but just today I realized they actually had one after all (not a good sign, if you can’t even find it). No surprise District 9 wins this hands down. They have had a great marketing campaign over all (maybe the best of the whole year. I’m still deciding between D-9 and Paranormal Activity) and they put a lot of effort on the net. Surrogates did an ok job too, but instead of investing on a good story, they used millions upon millions on traditional marketing. Fail (see next bit to fully understand)! But in all fairness both movies had very good websites.
BUDGET / GROSS
Since this is just statistics there is no room for opinion, so simply and clearly this goes to District 9. It would be quite interesting to know why a big Hollywood movie with a humongous marketing budget and all-star cast, grossed so little compared to a much cheaper debut film (low-budget in Hollywood) with no known actors. My humble guess is that District 9 was a better movie, but that’s just me…
Scores after round # 1:
District 9 = 4 points
Surrogates = 1 point
ROUND # 2
2. TRAILER
The trailer for District 9 is very close to being perfect. Especially this first teaser with the blurred alien faces. Too bad that the movie isn’t quite what the trailer promises. Surrogates is ok, it has it’s moments, but nothing that would distinguish it from all the other brainless Hollywood sci-fi out there.
Scores after round # 2:
District 9 = 5 points
Surrogates = 1 point (not looking too good…)
ROUND # 3
3. THE FILM
DIRECTOR
District 9 is director Neill Blomkamp’s debut feature and even if it wasn’t a total success, some mishaps can be forgiven from a first-timer. Especially from a new director who has true vision. But Surrogates (some what veteran) director Jonathan Mostow doesn’t have this luxury. But then again what more can you expect from the man who brought us Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and U-571. Not much is what. D-9 wins again!
CAST
Even though I really enjoyed Sharlto Copley in District 9, he is not a reason to go see a movie. Or at least he wasn’t before this role. Bruce Willis on the other hand is. Surrogates takes a point from this.
THE FILM
Of course non of the above mean anything if the film isn’t good. District 9 started out as one of the best films of the year, but half way trough the movie changed into an average scifi movie. Surrogates just was average at best from the beginning to the end. For the record, I know I’m being a bit hard on D-9, because I was expecting something extraordinary. I just wish the movie would have been more like the first half. Oh well…
There are also a lot of similarities, for example in both movies there are areas where the minority public are banned of going (“only humans allowed”), in both movies the protagonist’s personality changes completely opposite of what it used to be, etc. When you think about it, in many ways the plot and storytelling is quite similar. Look familiar?
Scores after round # 3:
District 9 = 7 points
Surrogates = 2 points
THE CONCLUSION
KO! Well, obviously District 9 wins the fight. I know you might be thinking that this wasn’t a fair fight at all. You might think that District 9 was a so much better than Surrogates anyway. So why bother with this. But was it better? Yes of course it was. Was it amazing? HELL NO! It could have been, it most definitely SHOULD have been, but it just wasn’t. The first half of the movie kicked some serious ass, second half just sucked ass…
But just to be sure, let’s give Google fight to determine this once and for all.
Get ready… get set… FIGHT!
Well there you have it. There is no denying of the word of the Google Gods…
Seth Rogen wins this round, but only just by a little. Ryan Gosling would be an excellent choice for Green Lantern, but since it is still under discussion, and since Seth Rogen as The Green Hornet is the best thing I have heard in a while, round one goes to Rogen! Also he is one part of the writing team, which makes me want to give him an extra half a point. And I will! So it´s Green Hornet 1,5 – Green Lantern 0.
I just have to give this to Green Hornet again. One reason is that I love the 
