If we go by the movies, virtual reality and artificial intelligence are the two great progressive leaps that will ultimately destroy the human race. Because of our vanity and our fear, we'll take them to extremes that will eventually enslave us -- mentally, physically, and emotionally. Six years ago, director Jonathan Mostow was dealing with another kind of future shock when he piloted the uneven third installment in theTerminator franchise, Rise of the Machines. Now he's returned, staying within the speculative fiction realm to deliver the thought-provoking Surrogates, a surprisingly dense deconstruction of the dangers of losing ourselves amidst powerful technology.

When a young man is killed outside a nightclub, FBI agents Greer (Bruce Willis) and Peters (Radha Mitchell) are brought in to try and ID the body. Living in a world where robotic "others," or surrogates, stand in for real people (the home-bound users of these devices control their every move, thought, and reaction), such a death is extremely uncommon and alarming. When they discover that the victim was the son of the man who invented surrogacy, Dr. Canter (James Cromwell), they suddenly smell conspiracy.

All clues lead to a rogue element in this society -- actual human beings (known as "dreads") who, via their leader The Prophet (Ving Rhames) promise revolution against the use of artificials. When Greer loses his avatar and must head out to investigate on his own, he soon discovers that the surrogate realm is far more complicated then he or anyone originally thought.

While it won't win any prizes for freshness, Surrogates offers a surprisingly strong entry into the ever-shrinking arena of serious sci-fi. Instead of turning everything into a slam bang spectacle of man vs. machine, Mostow takes the premise of Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele's graphic novel series and mines it for allegorical ammunition. Then, with the help of fellow screenwriting co-conspirators Michael Ferris and John D. Brancato (they all worked on T3) he makes us confront our all-too-obvious flaws and fears.

In the world of Surrogates there is little crime, no disease, and no racism. Of course, everyone's surrogates are also model perfect and excessively superficial. Our few glimpses of the real people behind these avatars, hopelessly addicted to their alternative selves, are not pretty. While their highly polished and perfected "others" live out their fantasy existences, the real citizens of this designer dystopia remain holed up in their homes unable to interact on an honest and open level. Instead of being freed, they are even more trapped than before.

Much as he did in 12 Monkeys, Willis makes for a compelling psychologically damaged stranger in a strange land; his face registers so much hurt and despair that you instantly sympathize with his plight. Mostow seems to recognize this, often favoring close-ups when shooting his leading man. This pays further dividends by the end, when Greer finds himself faced with a decision that will affect every man, woman, and child on the planet.

Sure, there are elements that seem half-baked and wildly underdeveloped, including Rhames' Rastafarian revolutionary, and we would definitely like more than just an opening credits bit of background on the surrogate explosion (a Supreme Court reference comes out of left field and is then dropped). Still, with intelligent science fiction in scant supply these days and Mostow clearly toning down the hyperactive stuntwork to get to the true meaning of his movie, Surrogates acquits itself admirably.

The DVD includes a commentary track.



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