Surrogates (M)

In an unspecified future, robotic advances have led to the creation of synthetic human lookalikes and the capability for people to control them from a home base.

These so-called surrogates have become so popular that people spend most of their waking time at home doing their jobs and having fun through these idealised avatars.

When someone discovers a way to simultaneously destroy surrogates and their operators, two FBI agents (Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell) – or, more often, their surrogates – try to find the perpetrator, perhaps the surrogates' inventor (James Cromwell) or an anti-surrogate prophet (Ving Rhames).

This sci-fi thriller – recalling Westworld, Total Recall and I Robot – is smart, ingenious and sufficiently intriguing as a satire of a future world that increasingly isolates and disconnects society as people become technology-addicted.

But its story sacrifices plot development for momentum, as if panicking that its inventive half might be too cerebral, making it necessary to revert to routine – even robotic – B-movie action.

• Reviewed by David Manning; DVDs for review supplied by United Video, Nelson.

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