While the quality of original and contemporary mainstream horror is up and down - more frequently the latter - original and contemporary mainstream science-fiction has been steadily producing some of the best, or at the very least, the most intriguing genre films of the decade (Inception, Looper, Edge of Tomorrow, Ex Machina, The Martian and so on). I guess this is fitting considering that our current period in history will be ed for how science and technology advanced further in ten years than it did in the previous hundred, or something.

On the strength of Duncan Jones' smart calling card debut Moon, Source Code was one I'd been wanting to catch up with for a long time. Upon catching up, that it lived so brilliantly up to its praise, maintaining the generally high quality of mainstream science-fiction was a big reaffirming relief.

I expected Groundhog Day for the gaming generation (I guess Edge of Tomorrow qualifies, too); the nucleus of this film is based on trial and error. But I didn't expect the intellectual underpinnings, and the equally stimulating secondary aspects of the plot as well as a substantial amount of emotional weight that even had me nearing tears.

Sure, it is sort of preposterous. But while watching, the film is keeping your brain so fully engaged that these minimal problems don't surface until thorough inspection. But I guess a film predominantly focused on the same eight minutes is opening itself up to scrutiny.

Still, one of the best original sci-fi films of the decade.