In a future that looks much like today, people stay at home while robotic surrogates they’ve purchased go out into the world to work. Humans can lie on comfortable sofas wearing headsets that let them experience and control the actions of their surrogates. Though the surrogates are copies of their owners, they’re usually younger looking and often capable of superhuman feats. When the person removes the headset, communication is broken and the surrogate is frozen in position.

One result of this technology is that humans apparently no longer face any danger. The surrogates can take a lot of abuse, and if one is completely destroyed, it can be replaced. But not everyone welcomes this technology. Some humans, who’ve formed an underground coalition, consider them an abomination and choose to exist without them. They’re led by The Prophet (Ving Rhames), who has a lot of surprises up his sleeve.

Near the beginning of the movie, two surrogates are attacked behind a dance club and shot with a ray that kills not only the surrogates but also their human operators, a first in the technology’s history. Agent Greer (Bruce Willis) of the FBI is put on the case, and he initially tries to solve it using his surrogate. But when his surrogate is destroyed, Greer has to pursue the bad guys in his own body. While he’s in the field, his wife, Maggie (Rosamund Pike), lies in a bed surrounded by bottles of pills while her surrogate, a 20-years-younger version of herself, runs a surrogate beauty parlor.

The subplot involving the relationship between Greer and his wife and the contrast between human and machine is the most interesting element of the film, as it deals with what happens when people become subservient to machines. This theme is skillfully explored during the last third of the movie, which contains some effective plot twists. But to get to it, you have to sit through the first part, which is quite ordinary, poorly scripted, and dully executed. Bruce Willis seems lost at times, and he’s shorn of the spiffy one-liners he had in the Die Hard movies. His performance is serviceable at best. Pike is much better, but she has stronger material to work with. The rest of the cast, whether human or surrogate, is robotic.

The car crashes and chases are decent, but the CGI explosions and special effects look fake (perhaps they were surrogate explosions), and the music of Richard Marvin drones on, wanted or not. As with the graphic novel on which Surrogates is based, there’s a good idea at the film’s heart. It just seems that director Jonathan Mostow (T3) doesn’t know how to get it out front. If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool science-fiction fan, you’ll have to see it. Otherwise, save your energy and send a surrogate.

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