High Concept Doesn't Mean It's Good

Rating: 5/10 (3 February 2013)

You can see how easily this can get sold at a movie pitch " In the near future where time is travel a man is set back in time to stop Chicago being nuked by a terrorist " . A Hollywood smiles slightly , rubs his chin and replies " great plot kid . Go write us a movie " . Problem is when you've got a great premise for a movie then it's imperative that you develop it to its major potential . This is where SOURCE CODE fails to a large degree
It's a film that uses time travel as a plot device . Except as the protagonist is told it's not time travel as such it's only continually being sent back to a certain point in time in order to identify the identity and location of a bomber . So let me get this right Captain Goodwin and Dr Rutledge are having to tell Colt Stevens about future events so they can send him back to a timeline in the past ? Why don't they a while till the forensics from the train bombing show where the bomb was placed , check the passenger list as to who survived the bombing there by indicating who the bomber was and then send Colt back to another fixed point where the bomber is assembling the nuclear device and then arrest him there and then ? Oh hold on that'd mean you wouldn't have a film
In theory SOURCE CODE deserves some credit in trying to bring a high concept plot in to American cinema and it did fairly well at he box office and at the end of the day money is all that matters but it's a deeply unsatisfying film . As it stands if you want a very high concept American movie featuring time travel and excitement then THE TERMINATOR from 1984 is the movie to beat