Surrogates

Jonathan Mostow's return to the big screen after 2003's Terminator 3 proves yet again that he is a director in dire need of a better script. Whilst the film is visually striking and features some terrific action sequences, the script only partially succeeds in capitalising on what is a hugely intriguing concept.

Essentially The Matrix in reverse, Surrogates tells of a world populated by remote-controlled human surrogates, which are claimed to be completely safe by their manufacturer. Crime is at an all time low, and there's barely anything for the police force to do. But when a man is killed whilst connected to his surrogate, Detective Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) finds himself head-first in a conspiracy to destroy the culture of surrogates.

There are inevitable chimes of better dystopian-future works, like Blade Runner or more recent fare like Gamer, echoing throughout, but Mostow does an excellent job of contrasting the creepy, surreal perfection of life amongst surrogates with the harshness of their users' reality. The actors playing the surrogates aid with this too, weighing their performances with an unsettling detachment that keeps you rightly sceptical of such a society.

Unfortunately, these fantastic visuals and solid performances from the cast are wasted by a script that is unable to focus on what it wants to be. There seems to be two movies present - one an interesting, hard sci-fi look at a world that has become entirely insular, the other is... well... a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. Blending the two couldn't have worked, regardless of the skill of the director. The story is fairly convoluted too, and whilst it's not impenetrable, it's given so little ceremony that you'll be hard-pressed to keep up.

The sad part is that the look into the implications of this dystopian future are interesting and well conceived - what if a fat, balding man was controlling that lithe blonde beauty? What if you can simply 'respawn' in a war? - but the story never capitalises on any of it, content to amble from poorly explained plot-point to well staged action to interesting insight with seemingly no connection between them.

So less than the sum of its parts, then - but not immediately dismissible. There are some interesting questions raised, and it is a movie that incites thought rather than beating you over the head with its own conclusions. But when viewed solely as a piece of entertainment, it comes up a little short.



Released on DVD and Blu-ray on 1st February 2010 by Walt Disney Home Entertainment.

Written by Ross Sweeney.