Now Playing: Source Code (2011)

Got the chance to go to the theater today and I had a few choices. Hobo with a Shotgun, Insidious, or Source Code. The decision eventually came down to my friends who weren't too hot on the idea of the first two so we saw Source Code today. To be honest I really wasn't that interested in the movie. I blame the trailers, it didn't look very good to me and seemed like a predicable storyline. Anyways, it's been getting good critical reviews so my friends convinced me to see it and I paid my $12. Hit the jump to see how it all turned out.



As I thought, the story was pretty predicable, or at least to me it was. This Air Force guy named Colter Stevens wakes up and is told he is running a simulation of the last 8 minutes of a dead man's experiences on a train. He can only view and relive the last 8 minutes of this man's life, but he can do it as many times as he wants to try to figure out what caused the train to explode. The story then plays with the theme of what's really real and whatnot. Possibly new to others, but I feel like I've seen this kind of thing before.

Colter in the beaten up sci-fi simulation pod

The acting was good though. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Colter Stevens well and his initial state of confusion was believable to me. Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright who play the main supporting characters all did well too. Perhaps the characters were a little stereotypical, but again this could just be me finding the story and script to be predicable. It's hard to say.

The effects were good what there was of them. The way they showed him going in and out of the "Source Code" which is the name of the memory simulation thing he's in, was cool. The various explosions of the train are almost always just a little different, be it from the camera angle or where they are on the train at the moment, so that's good. I'm not sure if it would be considered an "effect" but I did like the creepy dark capsule or pod that he has to stay in while they're doing the tests. That was a nice touch.

Here we go again

In the end I couldn't get past the fact that I saw most of what happened coming pretty damn early. I'm going to keep this especially vague since this is basically a mystery movie. The story was pretty good if not standard sci-fi fare, and the ending was nice, but ultimately also kinda dumb. My friends seemed to like it for the most part except for the ending as well. I wouldn't agree with the majority of critics and it's IMDB rating seems unusually high to me personally. To sum up this movie, I'd call it a little bland, but I have a feeling I'm going to be in the minority here. Keep in mind I had my expectations very low going in, and I still wasn't that impressed. Kinda wish I could get my money back on this one.