Surrogates - making Bruce Willis look younger

Yet another film that didn't motivate me enough last year to break out my wallet for a cinema trip - Surrogates arrived on my doormat last Wednesday morning. The trailers last year seemed to be advertising a summer blockbuster with explosions and Bruce Willis jumping around on moving cars; that's what had put me off really, since I'd expect a film with a concept like this to be a little more science-fictiony (great English there). It almost seemed like this was going to be another blueprint for a Hollywood destruction of good science fiction ideas; i.e. take an interesting concept and ask the question - are there enough explosions in this? I was fearing another Paycheck, so my £7.50 stayed in my pocket.

The concept: it is the future and 99% of the world's population (well, 99% of America - but we're supposed to take that to mean the world) live their lives through the use of 'surrogates' - robots through which one can interface remotely and do whatever you want without fear of injury or prejudice and without leaving the comfort of your bedroom. An interesting enough science fiction trope, one which I'm sure Arthur C Clarke would have dissected the physics of over the course of 5 books, but one which is thrown at us here in the space of a 2 minute compilation of news clips from the future. The clips tell of the invention of surrogates (by James Cromwell => EVIL CHARACTER!), their mass-production and introduction into everyday use. We are told that crime is at an all time low and that only a small splinter group of refusenicks remain unconvinced by the new technology - kind of a bit like IPhones I guess. Anyway, barely has this set-up had time to be digested by the average viewer (me) than the plot begins; someone has a weapon that can fry a surrogate and kill its user - OMG! Fear not though, Bruce Willis and his youthfull-looking hair are on the case.

What follows is 80 minutes (nice and short) of a fairly good mix of science fiction imagine-ifs, beard-stroking future history concepts, action and special effects. There are a few flaws in the science and sociology of the use of surrogates (example: why would the use of surrogates result in a zeroing out of crime?), but there wasn't really enough time to think about that too much. Also I'm sure that the culmination of the main plot doesn't make sense, but I'm trying not to think about it. And talk about a quality Chekov's Gun when the police visit the nerdy bloke who can disconnect people from their surrogates at will:

Police Woman : "So you can disconnect people from their surrogates - isn't that illegal?!"
Nerdy bloke : "Useful though!" [actor playing nerdy bloke does well to not wink at the camera]

Nicely done.

Something I really did like about the film was the acting and the subtle differences in movement and reactions when the actors were playing surrogates or 'meatbags'. Goes to show that no matter how much cash and CGI you through at a science fiction movie it still in the end comes down to script and performances. Verdict - well worth 80 minutes.

Next up on Fried Gold: Inception - the most exciting film I haven't seen yet since before Lord of the Rings came out.