Source Code (2011)

"Source Code" is the movie that has probably the most idiotic title from all I've seen in the last 10 years - and that's for not exaggerating and saying since when I watched the first movie (is that bad, that I think it's the first time when I actually prefer the Romanian "translation": "Identity Transfer"). And to add a bit more to that, the trailer follows closely on the stupidity level. Probably that's why my final impression is completely opposite, because I expected something bad, and what I've seen was pretty different from that. So ...

The starting idea is quite simple. We have a train going to Chicago which blows up at a certain moment. This is a fact that happened (= considered in the past), and that was announced as the "prequel" for the real terrorist attack to come = blowing the whole town up. Therefore, all the affair is investigated under time pressure by the US Army, using the latest secret available technology ... the "source code" ... (again, bad choice of name ... really bad). What's this .. source code ? ... apparently it refers to the possibility for one individual to mentally relive the last 8 minutes from other individual's life, by accessing the short term memory from the dead guy's brain. So, this brings us to the starting point of the movie, when an US Air Force pilot wakes up enclosed in a capsule, having the mission to continuously explode in the bombed train where he relives the last minutes of a passenger, until he manages to find out who placed the bomb there.

From this starting point, the movie gets more and more complicated. What's interesting is that it doesn't attempt to explain much. I really don't want to say more, not to spoil anything, so I don't know how clear will be what follows form here, but ... Well, the ending is not that cryptic being quite easy to understand, but you don't know exactly why is like that = you're pretty much left to place the links yourself to explain it, which I think is the best choice in this case. I will only say that the main idea in what you see is not as time related as it is space related. And from this onwards you can try to fit the facts to get some coherence. As a personal interpretation (which originates in some short story ideas that are waiting to be finished someday ...) and for the sake of the conversation, let's consider as premise that "u're soul" or smth like this is not dead when you're dead. What the movie gives me built from that (actually it doesn't give because it doesn't say how .. but it's supposed to be possible) is an hypothetical solution to the problem of how do you connect "your soul" to "your body" or more exactly to "your late brain" in order for "your soul" not to start again from 0 .. neurologically speaking :). Well, as I said, is a very personal interpretation and I don't have neither the time and the mood to talk about it now ... let's go back to more "real" and concrete stuff :)

Like I said above you won't get much explicit interpretation given by the movie (or at least none that relates to the deeper parts) - it's just facts and as the movie unravels the story will give you more and more information = again plain actual facts. Probably if it would have given all from starters it would be much more fuzzy in the end than it is, so I think it's quite ok scripted as it is = (light spoiler) gradually revealing elements from what's nothing else than the starting context. The thing is that doing so and adding also the repetitive action, the result might be a bit ... cold, if not actually boring from some point on, so we have also a bit of love story added in the script, to add more warmth (besides what the explosion fire gives). My conclusion is that the script is beautifully written (especially considering that comes from a guy who doesn't have much until now besides ... "Species" 3 and 4). To this, you can also add the directing - Duncan Jones ("Moon"). I don't know what else to mention because I don't think there is anything to .. The cinematography, the sound, the effects, even the acting ... all of it is .. let's say normal, nothing impressive. And honestly, you can feel the lack of something more = it would have had top movie potential if it had more to add at least to one of these categories .. without it ...

Rating: 4 out of 5

PS: Did I tell you that the trailer sounds .. plain dumb ? ...