The three of us were engaged in this movie while watching it but it didn’t leave us much to talk about afterward. We cared about the characters and the outcome of their struggle. The movie wisely chooses to keep its focus very narrow rather than distract us with too much backstory, subplots, or secondary characters. We learn about the situation and the world as Jake Gyllenhaals’ character does, and this makes us empathize with him even though we know little about him. AJM liked that his character was competent, as a professional soldier should be. He carried on and got the job done. The special effects furthered the plot rather than plot being an excuse for the special effects. It was refreshing to see some colors other than teal and orange. Only the music seemed a bit lacking. I don’t usually notice the score but JQS, who does, agreed.

AJM preferred Source Code to Inception because he didn’t care what happened to any of the characters in Inception. JQS and I preferred Inception because the overall effect was more intense. But there is something to be said for simplicity. And immediacy. Source Code is well-executed and enjoyable, even if it doesn’t leave much of an impression. At least it doesn’t suffer from pretentiousness. JQS pointed out that it was rather the inverse of The Matrix.