Personally, I loved it. Then again, science fiction is BY FAR my single favorite genre for both books and films and I don't need my science fiction films to be grounded in reality. Honestly, I have never understood why certain science fiction fans require that science fiction films be grounded in reality if they are to enjoy the film. It just makes absolutely no sense to me. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with making a science fiction film that is grounded in reality, just as there is nothing wrong with making a science fiction film that is not grounded in realilty. Its fiction, end of story and there are no rules in this regard. One can make a very realistic science fiction film and one can make an absolutely outlandish science fiction film. Again, there are no requirements or prerequisits for quality science fiction, beyond having an enjoyable story and characters that you enjoy. .
Almost every quality science fiction film ever created requires suspension of disbelief to some extent and has aspects that could easily be described as absurd if your comparing it to reality. 2001 and the black monolith, The Matrix in general, Inception and the different levels of dreaming and the whole getting stranded in your raw subconscious, the force in Star Wars, the interstellar bomb in Sunshine, growing avatars and transferring your consciousness to them in Avatar, The mutant powers in X-Men, the reavers in Serenity, Tom Cruise reliving the same day again and again in Edge of Tomorrow, etc. I could literally go on and on as 99% of every sceince fiction film ever produced has some aspect of the film that could again, be easily described as absurd when compared to reality. At the end of the day, Source Code and having the ability for someone to relive the final 8 minutes of someone's life is no more absurd than any of these other premises. To suggest otherwise is laughable at best. So if your issue is needing to have films grounded in reality then simply stop watching science fiction as chances are your going to see a film that has multiple aspects that are nothing short of absurd when it comes to what is real and what isn't real or what is or isn't possible, at least based on our present level of knowlegde.
Personally, I feel sorry for people that have such ridiculous requirements from genre's like science fiction & fantasy. Having those requirements would make it so it was literally next to impossible to enjoy a science fiction/fantasy film or book and that would just plain suck, period. Again science fiction is my single favorite genre and having such ridiculous requirments on the genre would ultimately mean that I wouldn't have enjoyed the hundreds of books and hundreds of films that I truly loved.
Was Source Code an Oscar worthy film? Nope. Was Source Code an enjoyable science fiction film, absolutely. I have watched it twice and I thoroughly enjoyed the film both times.
Still Shooting With Film!
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MrJJay
8 years ago
Star wars and Avatar are not sci-fi, they are fantasy. Other than that great post.
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