Rehash of "Surrogates"

Rating: 2/10 (30 April 2018)

First, I must explain that I have NOT read the original book, so I cannot speak to all the reviewers giving this movie a "1" due to its "differences from the source." I went into this strictly to judge the movie on its own merits, and as an allegorical story for a society already too obsessed with technology, it failed. In the very first minutes vis the expository narration, it was made clear that this story paralleled Bruce Willis's 2009 "Surrogates." Basic gist of both: spineless humans can no longer handle reality, so they're resorting to escapism via technology; the conflict in the story is resolved when the virtual alternative is destroyed (at the behest of its creator, who has realized the error of his ways) and humanity is forced to resume living in the real world. So when Z goes "shopping" after his first win and the "bomb" that can destroy the Oasis is introduced, I figured, "Here we go, that's what'll solve the problem." But NOOOO, even after learning the hard way that the bad guys are willing to KILL other living, breathing people over the silly fake world, our dimwitted protagonist still insists on saving his precious "safe (fake) space." When the villain finally sets off the bomb, I figured "Ok, Z will now have an epiphany and LET the bomb go off." Nope. And then when he finally "meets" the creator of Oasis, he is immediately shown the literal "Big Red Button" that practically screams "HIT ME NOW!" How much more obvious can it be that what the programmer actually WANTS is for Z to destroy his misbegotten fake world and force everybody to finally face reality? And hasn't Z supposedly learned, from meeting his friends in real life and experiencing it with them, that reality is better? Isn't that the message we're supposed to be getting on Samantha's rooftop? But no, there's a total cop-out in the end with that ridiculous "compromise"! Ultimately, "Surrogates" presents the same story but with a more appropriate ending. I would've given this movie a "1" but my nostalgia as an 80's baby earned it the second pity star.