Surrogates

If you've seen "I, Robot," then you've seen this movie. It has all the same ingredients: awesome action star, robots, some diabolical plot involving robots, more robots, the same actor who created robots starring in both movies, and finally a bunch of robots.

Only Will Smith did it much better. Do not be fooled by Bruce Willis' intrigued look on the movie poster, this is not his latest action flick. What "Surrogates" is, however, is an interesting look at the future that may very well be a possibility.

The movie starts with a brief montage of clips showing the usefulness of robots completely controlled by our own brains. Normally, I would write this off as fantastic science fiction myth specifically designed for this movie. The clips however are genuine, I've seen them on news sites (that means I am a credible source). The clips show chimps and handicapped humans controlling robotic appendages with nothing but their minds. Fast forward to the near future where 98% of the population sits in their Lay-z-boys at home and conducts all of their daily affairs with younger, better looking versions of themselves. They go out using surrogates (playfully named 'Surries') of themselves. This is probably the most achievable movie idea I've seen all year: a world where you or I can go out as the opposite sex, or as a different ethnicity and no one would know the difference. Believe me, if any science fiction movie is going to come true, it's going to be this one.

Bruce Willis stars as a cop (go figure) working in Boston. He, like everyone else, uses a surrogate to conduct police affairs. Seeing a blonde, young Bruce Willis is definitely a huge perk of this movie. Since most of the world uses surrogates, murder has dropped to zero percent. If a surrogate is killed, only the robot dies, the people in the chair get unplugged by failsafes that save them from death, making surrogates the safest thing in the world. Everyone's fantastic-looking and super human abilities come with the territory. Here's the catch: Willis finds two surrogates with their brains fried out. When he looks for their owners, he finds each one lying in their chairs with their own brains liquified.

Cue the inevitable treacherous plot involving the chief-of-police, the creator of surrogates (the same actor who created robots in "I, Robot") and the army. If you've watched at least ten movies in your life, the ending is easily predictable.

"Surrogates," while short on action and length (one hour and twenty minutes), balances itself with both a solid idea and Bruce Willis. Bruce Willis is a man who knows how to act, conveying the right amount of sadness and pain in one scene and brutal one liners in the next. But, he is getting old, and it shows in this movie. He still does some ridiculous things, but he gets beaten up, badly. When he ditches his surrogate he can't function in the outside world very well.

A great idea and a veteran actor save this movie from being thrown to the bottom of the bin. I can only recommend it for Bruce Willis fans, or science fiction fans in general.

Grade: C+/B- or two out of four stars

-Christopher O'Connell