3. Surrogates
Surrogates was fantastic insofar as it took an idea which affects society at the moment living vicariously through technology and took it to its logical conclusion, replacing internet avatars with real, electrical bodies. The world itself was extremely well realised, and made a good job of showing Bruce Willis alienation with what society has become after he discards his surrogate. I really wanted to explore this world and what the ramifications of widespread surrogates would be upon society. Yet we only get to see snippets an army base, a nightclub, a novelty shop instead focusing on a whodunnit mystery which gradually evolves into an end-of-the-world scenario. Dont get me wrong, I love films that threaten an Armageddon but here I think it just cheapens the concept, creating grand scale for grand scales sake. When were faced with an interesting world such as this, sticking a formulaic conspiracy at the heart of what could have been a genius film makes it dance further into mediocrity. The most annoying thing is that there was already a perfectly good film rolling along in the background that of Willis and his wife, the sadly overlooked Rosamund Pike, coming to terms with their sons death. Both react in interesting, human ways to the technology in light of this Pike lets the technology consume her, Willis becomes steadily more detached. It would have been great to let that story breathe beyond the cursory glance the script provides for it.