Friday, July 22, 2011

Source Code

Source Code is an interesting movie about a man who is sent into "The Source Code" of an 8 minute period in the past in order to find a person who bombed the train. Source Code has tons of twists and turns to keep you interested and it isn't a long movie either.




Keep scrolling if you want to avoid the spoilers
*SPOILER ALERT****
The problem arises for a few different reasons some are discussed here

http://www.overthinkingit.com/2011/04/05/source-code-pseudoscience/3/

though even that site has some errors and is a little wordy so here are a few of my person problems.

A. Should have ended sooner. Thought Source Code isn't too long it had a perfect freeze frame ending. But they had to go on for another 10 minutes to prove a point. The Source Code actually creates or transports the  person to a parallel universe. Which didn't add anything to the movie. In fact it just caused me find more problems

B. All of these parallel universes, if in fact are created by the Source Code (besides the Source Code being able to transport someone to an already created universe), means that every time Colter Stevens fails 100s of lives that were created are lost. Now if you consider that in each one of these universes is exactly the same as the Original one we have to believe that the new Universe (lets call it B) sends their own Stevens through their source code exponentially creating Universe that 100s of people die in.

Now this one can be glosses over a bit since we only care about the "Original" universe. I mean who cares about someone else universe. But what about...

C. Colter Stevens is an identity thief and murderer. It is nice that Stevens gets to talk to his dad one last time and gets to live out his last 8 minutes to the max. That is where is should have ended but it turns out that he is in a parallel universe. This means every time he made the jump into the source code he hi-jacked a mans life and usually ends up killing him trying to find the bomber. God knows what happens to the poor History teacher whose being possessed by an unknown, virtually dead soldier. Is the teacher helplessly watching as his body does/says things he can't control like in "Being John Malkovich" or is his soul eradicated from existence the second the Source Code begins? Either way this teacher's body is taken over by Stevens in an infinitely created parallel worlds. What a great ending ... plus

D. Colter Stevens has to re-learn every thing that the teacher knows and ignore all of his old acquaintances from his old life. I mean that has to be a freaking chore. Who is this persons family, friends and what do they look like? Where do I live? What college to I teach at? What exactly do I teach in History? Can I fool this girl long enough into get her to marry me... Do I have a wife?

There are so many problems for Stevens now that he has a new lease on life. Though that is only one bucket of ick he has to deal with.

What if he sees his old army buddies or even his family on the streets. How can he deal with never seeing them again even though that he is still alive. And if he does break down and tries to contact them by saying he is possessing another mans body from an alternate universe... How will he stay out of an insane asylum?





*END OF SPOILERS****




So over all the movie would have been so much sweater if it ended a little earlier and did not open a can of worms. It was worth the $1.50 I paid to go see it and it is worth it to rent it for $2-3 though I don't need to see it again.

I dare say it is close to an 8 but some of the acting and concepts knocked it down a notch. BAM!


Rating: 7/10