Release Date: September 25, 2009

(out of 4)

Somewhere in the range between supercool and cool, Surrogates has a constant slick Magna comic look and brisk, dashing storytelling involving a futureworld where humans let their humanoid robot counterparts do everything for them in the real world. Bruce Willis is the perfect action rogue for this kind of picture, out to smash in some robot heads – which he does a couple of times.

In the future every walking humanoid is beautiful and desirable, which makes one think the casting director had a field day working on this one. In the story, humans universally plug-in at home while their beautified replicant counterparts represent them in the real world. It’s like the Sims-gone-Philip K. Dick-meets-the-Wachowski brothers with lots of egotistical humor (through a replicant you can pretty much go, “I like you, let’s f***” except it might not even be necessary to say anything at all). With your counterpart, social control dictates that you send your replica to work by day and do whatever you want at night. Party on like it’s “The Matrix,” man!

When Bruce Willis, as blonde Agent Tom Greer, enters an investigation in the opening scenes involving a rare humanoid termination, you think it’s the real Agent Greer. Nope, he’s a surrogate. At home, the real bald-headed Greer is computer-chair bound, and on the rare times he gets up he is drowsy and languid. Sick of seeing his own body as non-functional, he wants to do this new case on his own without his humanoid clone. Sci-fi humor: Greer’s shallow wife (the super-sexy but icy cold Rosamund Pike, the “Die Another Day” good-bad girl) is more concerned about the condition of Greer’s surrogate than of her real Greer flesh and blood husband.

In what is certainly director Jonathan Mostow’s (“Breakdown,” “Terminator 3”) most confidently crafted picture, a caution message proliferates on the dangers of letting technology running our lives to the extreme (credit the 2005 graphic comic book novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele, who brought more dark and severity in their original work). In this future the percentage of committed crimes is way down, but not all is harmonious when the conspiracy plot kicks in. John Brancato and Michael Ferris are the two screenwriters in charge of this adaptation, previously they penned 1997’s best thriller, actually why not affirm it as masterpiece, “The Game” with Michael Douglas.

Assumption is that revolutionaries are hatching a plan to overthrow the computer world altogether. Ving Rhames, in dreadlocks, is outrageous as The Prophet, the premiere spokesman leading in the outcry against robots and technology. Tied into all this is James Cromwell (“L.A. Confidential”) as Canter, the inventor of surrogates whom now is reluctant about the direction of the technology he created. There is also pursuit of a stolen highly advanced weapon that not only exterminates the humanoid, but its human user at home too from fried-brain syndrome.

Logical and conscientious narrative twists keeps things engaging, our brains are as stimulated as our eyes. Many movies of recent years pile up gratuitous twists and turns that render its story incoherent, but “Surrogates” is utmost prudent with keeping all of its characters in line. Tom’s FBI partner is played by Radha Mitchell (“Man on Fire”), and during the course of the story, the operation of her surrogate is affected – talk about multi-personality disorder. Other characters override her surrogate and control her public actions and this shared occupancy is played out cunningly but also within the restraints of story necessity.

The visual look of the film is very impressive, especially a marvelous shot that takes place in the surrogates manufacturing plant. Mostow’s film is only unimpressive when it gets to the scenes at the Reservation, the site of the Prophet’s anti-robot people commune, with scenery that feel under-constructed and tightly restricted within a producer’s limited budget. It doesn’t make sense that this Reservation, which seems so small, would be the only one brought up in the film – there aren’t any other anti-robot communes elsewhere around the globe? In short, there’s about a half dozen negatives about the scenes that take place at the Reservation.

“Surrogates” gets its business done with eye-popping camerawork and efficient special effects. While often clever to boot, the film however is sketchy about economics (do richer humans have the means to afford better-looking and more athletically coordinated surrogates?), and the unexplained meaning behind war plagues in other countries. The film, at a spare 88 minutes running time, doesn’t go the distance to cover all its bases.

Bruce Willis’ sci-fi masterpiece is “12 Monkeys” and then there’s “The Fifth Element” which is irresistible whacked excitement that is also admittedly a little too off the charts reckless. “Surrogates” isn’t a sci-fi masterpiece but it doesn’t lose all of its control either nor does it go loopy, and with that it should be at least remembered as one of Bruce Willis’ successes.