Surrogates

Seen at: Cinema Saver 6 in Fort Collins, at 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 1

One can't help noticing that often Hollywood movies come out in pairs---i.e. two or more films released near to each other with nearly the same premises. Such was the case this fall with Gamer and Surrogates, both of which involve the use of human beings controlling avatars. In fact, Avatar in December will make it a triple.

I saw Gamer in Memphis and loved it---one of those quiet movies that will fly under the radar and remain in the public memory for a long time. I was not surprised that it stuck around in theaters for a while. Surrogates, on the other hand, got tepid reviews. It came and went quickly from the first run multiplexes, and wound up in the cheapo second run theater in Ft. Collins after only a few weeks.

Imagine my surprise when I wound up liking it---a lot. First off, it has a slightly different premise than Gamer, where people control other humans as avatars. In Surrogates, the humans control android avatars. The movie is set in a dystopian future in which everyone stays indoors almost permanently, and does all outside activity thorugh their robot avatars.

O.K., this isn't a masterpiece, but it had fun original concept and a story that kept me interested all the way through. There are some goofy scenes here and there, but I cared about the characters. There's even an anti-eugenics message in it, as the bad guy basically hates human beings and want to sterilize the Earth. What's not to like here?

Verdict: Unexpectedly fun as sci-fi. One of those "bad" movies that is actually quite watchable.