Remember when Hollywood blockbusters were story and character driven instead of vehicles for CGI saturation? Apparently Duncan Jones does. Fresh from his stellar debut, the Kubrickian Moon, Jones returns with Source Code, a delightful sci-fi thriller that is so good that we don't care that it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Allow me to explain. The plot involves a series of technological MacGuffins that are so insane that even Gene Roddenberry would shake his head in disbelief. Basically, one morning in Chicago a train is bombed, killing several hundred people. The Navy, or...er...Air Force...I think, use a brand new technology called "Source Code" which for reasons best left unexplained here allow a user to go back in time and relive the last 8 minutes of somebody's life. How? I'm not even sure the movie knows. But who cares? We have a bomber to catch! Colter Stevens, a Marine, or...er...Army...helicopter pilot is strapped into Source Code and made to relive the last eight minutes of the train before it explodes. His mission is to find out where the bomb was located and who detonated it because the same person had threatened to release a dirty bomb inside Chicago which could kill millions. The only problem is that he is slowly falling in love with a woman on the train who died in the explosion. So now he must grapple with his responsibility to catch the bomber and his desire to save her and everyone else on the train. If you can look beyond the brain-bending science, you will discover a novel and original storytelling idea. In a sense, it's kind of like an eight-minute version of Groundhog Day. The only problem is that he can't change the future because it doesn't exist in this reality. OR CAN HE?! Really, my biggest problem with this film is that it indulges in romantic cliches towards the end that seem like a slap in the face to the science that Jones desperately tried to explain. I won't spoil it, but it indulges in the old technique of if we just BELIEVE hard enough, it'll happen, for reals. But I'm not going to complain. Source Code was absolutely terrific and a refreshing change from the technological tedium of modern day Hollywood.
8/10
I'm glad you finally got around to seeing this one as I really liked it too! Like with Inception I consider this to be more fantasy than science fiction. I'm looking forward to Duncan Jones' next film, whatever that may be!
ReplyDeleteReally? Maybe science fiction becomes fantasy when it focuses more on the "fiction" than it does the "science." Whatever the case, I can't wait for Jones' next project!
ReplyDeleteI'm slightly disappointed with this film, mainly because I didn't find the science, as you said, seemed to be anything like science fiction based on any plausible fact or explanation. I also remember seen MOON not long ago, and there are good things in store, possibly, for writer/director Jones. MOON was quite good!
ReplyDeleteI feel like "Source Code" was a film that Jones did to further cement himself as part of the Hollywood establishment. I'm looking forward to his next film which supposedly is going to be in the same continuity as "Moon."
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