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The question, "if a movie was made about your life, who would play the starring role" is deemed irrelevant in the world of Surrogates as your surrogate of choice would essentially play yourself. But admittedly it wouldn't be much of a life, as you are wired up in bed, watching your life play out before you. It may be glamourous for a while but in the long term it must get terribly dull not being able to associate with real human beings.

Bruce Willis is suffering from this dilemma. He is policeman Tom Willis who uses a surrogate (complete with a head of hair) to perform his day to day duties protecting his real self from the danger and action his job entails. However Tom is not happy. He is grieving after the death of his son and is hungering for some real life attention from his wife Maggie (Rosamund Pike) who is hooked on the use of surrogacy for all facets of her life. Her and everyone else it seems as we are informed that 98% of the world's population uses a surrogate - yes you will need to suspend your belief to even imagine that this could occur.

When the death of two surrogates causes the death of their owners then an immediate investigation takes place headed up by Tom and his partner Peters (Radha Mitchell). Up until this incident it was thought that a death of the surrogate would automatically flip a fail-safe switch protecting the owner from being hurt or injured.

By way of investigation we are introduced to Dreads - humans who refuse to adopt to the change and who live exiled from the surrogate inhabited world. Lead by The Prophet (Ving Rhames) it seems that this particular group has turned rogue ready to undertake a rebellion on the rest of the society. What the movie fails to present is a happy medium - but maybe there just isn't one. There are those who are addicted to the use of surrogates and those that do not want to get involved marking themselves as extremists against the robot cloned world.

Directed by Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines), the movie certainly generates some fabulous looking concepts and scenes. I felt however that it could have dealt more into the surrogate vs human aspect rather than heading directly down the action route but then again this is a Bruce Willis vehicle and action is what he does.

I enjoy intelligent sci-fi movies and one of my all time favourites is Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days (1995). The idea of hooking up to other people's experiences like a drug could have been delved into further in this movie particularly when the surrogate you inhabit may not resemble your true self at all. Grey territory indeed!

"Still no official word on when, or if, surrogate services can be restored. It appears, at least for now... that we are on our own." Let's hope it stays that way for a while longer!

Voyage Review: 3/5

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Sci-Fi

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Review - District 9

October 3rd 2009 04:27

District 9 may have left me with a lot of unanswered questions but in my mind it didn't particularly matter. I enjoyed District 9 over and above any other movie I have seen recently and was thoroughly entertained by Neill Blomkamp's take on the sci-fi genre. Aliens have been appearing in film ever since Georges Méliès 1902 silent film Le voyage dans la lune and District 9 truly earns the right to be a part of the genre.

Presented as a documentary, the Peter Jackson backed film is set in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Stranded, malnourished and unable to relocate their alien craft, aptly named "prawn" like aliens are given food and shelter while being nursed to health. 20 years later and long forgotten by the rest of the world, the alien camp District 9, has turned into a poverty stricken slum. Locals are unhappy about the location of the aliens and the South African government is forced to take action as the rest of the world looks on. The government in all their wisdom hires Multi-National United (MNU) to take charge of a large scale relocation operation to move them to a less human inhabited area, District 10.

The hero of the tale is Wikus Van De Merwe (a fantastic Sharlto Copley), an unlikely and seemingly incapable person given charge of the task. Due to his marriage ties, he is nonetheless responsible for notifying the prawns of their upcoming eviction. MNU and in particular, Wikus, are unprepared for the task and a little gung-ho in their approach. Chaos thus ensues and Wikus in his clumsiness becomes infected with a liquid which causes him to turn "prawn".

The infection is slow at first but when the appearance of an alien arm appears, both MNU and the neighbouring Nigerian gangs are pleased with the result. The aliens were certainly not unprepared for battle upon their arrival as their weapons suggest. Although 20 years on and apparent failure to study the mechanics behind the alien weaponry is met with frustration and despair. Only alien DNA is able to operate the equipment and the government and the Nigerians are quick to connect Wikus' affliction as the solution to their problem.

Meanwhile the aliens have been biding their time, largely ignored, trying to find a way to get their craft back to the mother ship to ultimately rescue the stranded aliens. Part social commentary with a lot of black humour and gore, District 9 is a movie that manages to be something without particularly trying to be much of anything.

The battlefield may be muddied at times but it is clear in the end who the bad guys are! Highly recommended for sci-fi and action fans alike.

Voyage Review: 4/5

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Sci-Fi

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Review: Slaughterhouse-Five

September 20th 2009 03:17

The Time Traveller's Wife is still on my list to catch at the cinema although in it's absence I thought I would review Slaughterhouse-Five. It was actually made in 1972 movie and focusses on a man who becomes unstuck in time, travelling through time and space.

Based on Kurt Vonnegut's novel of the same name, Slaughterhouse-Five was well received winning the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and earning a Golden Globe nomination for the lead actor Michael Sacks. Interestingly enough, Sacks only remained in the industry for 12 years and retired from acting in 1984 to pursue a career in Technology.

Sacks is Billy Pilgrim who somehow experiences his life in a random order, switching between events in his life with no warning. One minute he is an optometrist living with his wife and family and the next he is thrown back to World War II. What causes the switch or even how it begins is not clear although Pilgrim just seems to go with the flow managing somehow to switch from one stage in his life to another without too much trouble. Lucky for him, unlike that of Henry DeTamble in Audrey Niffenegger's version of time travel in The Time Traveller's wife, he manages to keep his clothes on.

The randomness he experiences leaves him slightly detached from that of his friends and family throughout his life but I guess viewing your death before it occurs may have that kind of effect on you.

Much of the focus is on his time spent during the war and his experiences in Dresden after being captured by the Germans. But despite the subject matter, humour abounds particularly when he is abducted by aliens (yes you heard me correctly) and his object of lust, actress Montana Wildhack, is abducted alongside him in order that they can mate and be observed by the inhabitants of Tralfamadore.

Everything is predetermined and events in the future cannot be altered giving Pilgrim a heavy lesson in accepting the bad things in life and focussing moreso on the good.

The film is hard to categorise and IMDB has it nestled under five categories - namely comedy, drama, fantasy, sci-fi and war.

For a movie made in the 70's, it has definitely held up pretty well in terms of the entertainment value it provides.

Voyage Review: 3.5/5

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Sci-Fi

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Review - Knowing

June 23rd 2009 15:00

Living in a foreign country abroad, we miss the trailers for all up and coming flicks. So it was with hesitation when I decided to sit down and watch Nicolas Cage's latest release - Knowing - as I had no idea what it was about. Very ironic but true!

Nicolas Cage is John Koestler, a widower, an astrophysicist and MIT professor whose son, Caleb (Chandler Canterbury), attends the local elementary school. John is not a believer in god or any form of christianity despite the fact that his estranged father is a pastor and that his son has a name overflowing with Christian undertones. (Caleb, biblically speaking, was an important figure in the Hebrew Bible, noted for his faith in God and was only one of two adult Israelites allowed to enter Canaan as a reward for their faith.) Early on in the piece we learn that the only philosophy he comes to rely on is the fact that "s**t happens

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Sci-Fi

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Review - Push

June 5th 2009 03:37

Movers, Pushers, Watchers, Bleeders, Sniffs, Shifters, Wipers, Shadows and Stitchers. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Just to give you the lowdown and to avoid any possible confusion of which there may be much: Movers can manipulate objects; Pushers put thoughts, feelings and memories into the heads of others; Watchers can foresee the future; Bleeders emit high frequency sonic vibrations that can rupture blood vessels; Sniffs are like bloodhounds using their nose to locate people or objects; Shifters can temporarily shift patterns of light on any object to create illusions; Wipers erase your memory either on a permanent or temporary basis; Shadows can block visions of others; and Stitchers can heal or unheal by reconstructing cells on touch

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Sci-Fi

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