Source Code

Ratings: 7.7/10
Film Class: B
Genre: Action Thriller

Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up to find himself in another man's body and must discover for himself why he's there and what mission awaits him. From the trailer, possibly the part which attracted you to catch this movie in the first place discloses that the train was bound for destruction and that Captain Colter Stevens has to keep reliving the last 8 minutes before it's explosion to uncover the identity of the terrorist bomber.

Packaged as an action thriller, it sure delivered what is to be expected and lived up to its expectations. Novel and interesting concept, with a twist at the end to inject that "intellectual" aspect of it. However, as much as I would love to award Source Code with an exceptional 8-9 rating, it falls slightly short of it because the twist at the end didn't tie up loose ends, instead it gave rise to an implausible explanation.

*spoilers ahead* A movie which revolves around concepts on quantum physics should be given room for errors, and I can totally accept it if it were bits and pieces throughout the film. But the biggest problem with that is that the huge "error" came at the end. After a discussion with my girlfriend who first brought it up, I tried to reason it out but ended up seconding her opinion.

*major spoilers ahead* The ending twist would come across as fresh and unpredictable to most, but for someone who analyzes the logic of "intellectual" plots, the ending wouldn't make sense since ... once again, DO NOT READ ON if you still haven't caught it (cause the ending really adds that element of awe to it), it states that there is possibly an alternate universe/reality or some sort and that the ability to change the past which has already happened was possible based on a dead man's 8 minute memory and an almost dead man's snyching brain frequency. Also, Captain Colter Stevens was able to have "flashforwards" of the future which he would have created. How in the world was all of that possible when the main concept of Source Code was based on a false reality? Ans: Source Code is based on an alternate reality which affects the current reality's outcomes. But then again, dead man's 8 minute capture, almost dead man's brain waves, doesn't make sense. Plus the ending, it implies an almost dead man's brain waves can trottle between the past and the future and has the ability to change them?

The "hallucinations" Captain Colter Stevens experienced such as oozing blood and coldness could be attributed to how he died, though wouldn't make that much sense since he died in Afghanistan... don't think it was cold there. But then again, maybe when a person is on the verge of dead, he/she would feel cold? Who knows? Either way, it's a plausible explanation. And somehow, the main concept of Source Code was convenient summarized in 2 minutes during screen time, chucked aside and never revisited again. The director must have felt the concept wasn't strong so decided to veer the focus of his audience away from it.

In essence, great idea, great story plot, great execution, great acting, but not so great logic. I love the movie even though it didn't quite meet my own expectations (I had very high hopes for it) and personally, this is definitely Jake Gyllenhaal's top performing movie of all time. He nailed his role and I believe no Hollywood star could've done it better than he did.