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This was an extremely well done Sci-Fi film, not to mention independent film. What made it great was how they made it seem so believable, that something like this could happen someday. It wasn't lame like most time travel movies, which usually are ridiculous......



And I have to give it props for that. Great film.

Stands as one of the most important films in recent history.



I give this film a 6.1 out of 10.0. It's fairly interesting and impressive, but you'll more than likely be lost without trying to search out for some answers. I personally have little desire to watch any one movie twice in a row, so perhaps my rating will rise when I get around to watching it again.

I can't decide if I liked Primer (2004) or not. The tone was interestingly intimate and the cinematograhy pleasing odd, although I would imagine some D.P.'s are turning over in their graves.

I can't fault its production values considering it was made for only $7k but I can rag on the writer/director Shane Carruth a) because the film didn't make any sense after all is said and done and b) his characters lacked any depth to them and c) his acting skills were lacking compared to co-star David Sullivan. A real nice first time effort but I wish he would have written a real story instead of a time traveling mess... I mean seriously, should it be "that" hard to figure out a story? I mean Momento and Total Recall you can wrap your head around but this... naw. Perhaps it was because I watched it really really late at night but I really don't think so. I'm curious as to what other people think... so sound off.

I was intrigued about Primer because I had been told it was classy, smart sci-fi that's so often missing in today's entertainment line-up (see: Sci-Fi channel's Mansquito). It won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and the critical reviews had been generally very positive. So my expectations were high for a well wrought, high brow film analyzing time travel. What I got was one long, pretentious, incomprehensible, poorly paced and shot techno lecture. Oh it got bad. Oh did it get bad.

Aaron (Shane Carruth) and Abe (David Sullivan) run a team of inventors out of their garage. Their newest invention seems promising but they're still confused about what it does. Aaron and Abe's more commercially minded partners want to patent it and sell it. Aaron and Abe inspect their invention further and discover it has the ability to distort time. They invent larger versions and time travel themselves and thus create all kinds of paradoxes and loops and confusion for themselves and a viewing audience.

Watching Primer is like reading an instruction manual. The movie is practically crushed to death by techno terminology and all kinds of geek speak. The only people that will be able to follow along are those well-versed in quantum physics and engineering. Indeed, Primer has been called an attempt to make a "realistic time-travel" movie, which means no cars that can go 88 miles per hour. That's fine and dandy but it makes for one awfully boring movie.

Primer would rather confound an audience than entertain them. There is a distinct difference between being complicated and being hard to follow. You'd need a couple volumes of Cliff Notes just to follow along Primer's talky and convoluted plot.

I was so monumentally bored by Primer that I had to eject the DVD after 30 minutes. It was that bad. I have never in my life started a film at home and then turned it off, especially one I paid good money to rent. But after so many soul-crushing minutes of watching people talk above my head in a different language (techno jargon) I reached my breaking point. Primer will frustrate most viewers because most will not be able to follow what is going on, and a normal human being can reasonably only sit for so long in the dark.

I did restart Primer and watched it to its completion, a scant 75 minutes long. The last 20 minutes is easier to grasp because it does finally deal with time travel and restaging events. It's a very long time to get to anything comprehensible. I probably should watch Primer again in all fairness but I have the suspicion that if I did my body would completely shut down on me in defense. Some people will love this and call it visionary, but those will be a very select group that probably doesn't see enough sunlight.

It's not just that Primer is incomprehensible but the film is also horrifically paced. When you don't know what's being said and what's going on then scenes tend to drag because there is no connection. This movie is soooooo slow and it's made all the worse by characters that are merely figureheads, dialogue that's confusing and wooden, and a story that would rather spew ideas than a plot. This movie could be the cure for insomnia scientists have long been looking for.

Writer/director/star Shane Carruth seems to have high ambitions but he has no empathy for an audience. Films can be dense and thought-provoking but they need to be accessible. Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko is a sci-fi mind bender but it's also an accessible, relatable, enjoyable movie that's become a cult favorite. Maybe Carruth should take a few notes from Kelly. Carruth also seems to think that shooting half the movie out of focus is a good idea. Maybe the mangled audio was his idea too.

I'm not against a smart movie, nor am I against science fiction that attempts to explore profound concepts and ideals. What I am against, however, is wasting my time with a tech lecture disguised as quality entertainment. Primer is obtuse, slow, convoluted, frustrating and pretentiously impenetrable. After finally finishing Primer I scanned the DVD spine and noticed it said, "Thriller." I laughed so hard I almost fell over. The only way Primer could be a thriller is because you'll be racing the clock for it to finish.

Nate's Grade: D

Brilliant sci-fi thriller with lots of ideas

Any good science fiction story starts with the question "What if?" P.K. Dick was the master of such themes in his stories. What if we had the power to create life? To see into the future? To alter our own memories? Even something as simple as 'What if aliens invaded Earth?' Any good sci-fi story takes the question and runs with it. Primer does just that with the classic time-travel theme.

Primer is kind of a rarity, the low-budget indy sci-fi flick. And I don't mean low budget like Pitch Black. I mean so low budget that the director acts in the film, makes only one digital effects shot made on his home computer, and is limited with one rented camera. That is independent cinema at it's garage editing finest my friends.

But for what it lacks in gloss, polish, and acting, Primer makes up with the simple audacity of it's science fiction concept. The story takes the classic time-travel story, brings it to a grounded level of more reaslistic theoretical physics, and keeps it as realstic and loose-end free as possible. The storyline in Primer it is very complex, I had to watch it twice, once with the directors commentary. I felt I had a grasp of the story the first time but I decided that I missed significant plot points. I haven't had to analyse the story of a film this much since Mulholland Drive....

8/10 :fresh:

This complexity may be a flaw with some viewers but I found it's depth rewarding and intriguing.

11-08-06

After three false starts I finally made it through my first screening. There may be a possible second in my future. The film is really too academic (scientific) for my brain and tastes, but I was able to look past that and know the film was truly about the human condition. Many loose ends never get tied up for me, but in the end the film was interesting, even though confusing. A must-stay-awake experience. I found myself leaning in and listening closely. Credit for the low budget and acceptable quality given that fact. Another credit for the acting, which roles went to amateurs who were better than twenty professional Katherine Keeners' any day. I believe this movie is worth watching, at least once.

Science fiction doesn't necessarily need a huge budget and huge special effects and huge amounts of CGI and huge name stars. Good scifi usually starts with a good idea. A premise that you are asked to accept (e.g. time travel), the movie then carries on to explore the consequences of that idea. This is the kind of thing that fuels imagination. This is exactly the sort of thing that drives the search for new science and technology. Going to the moon was one such premise that was explored in movies early in the last century - it inspired generations of scientists to develop the technology to make that happen.

I wouldn't be surprised if the next big advance happens just as it does in this movie. Two best friends and business partners, fooling with stuff in their garage, discover a process that just might hold the secret to time travel. Paradoxes arise. Such as - they not sure how they came across this breakthough - so maybe they figured it out and went back in time to lead themselves to the discovery. Where will they get the money to build their full-scale machine. Well, if they go back in time a day or two with the winning lottery numbers - the money wouldn't be an issue. When they rent a storage container to do their experiments and the machine is already there - that's freaky. When they start to have to hide to keep from running into themselves - that's really freaky. When they realize that there may be many versions of themselves around at the same time - that's really super mega freaky.

This is a time travel movie for "tech heads". It doesn't explain every little thing, it assumes that you're smart enough to figure stuff out (it is often referred to as an "intellectual thriller"). Also, no sex or nudity. It was written and directed by one of the two main characters, who used all his friend, and shot much of the film in his own garage. Made for a mere $7000, This film takes a sci-fi staple like time travel and puts a new spin on it. Production quality may be lean but the ideas are rich enough to keep your imagination going for a long while.

What have we learned from PRIMER?

Time travel is freaky.I know that time travel isn't possible for real, because I haven't won the lottery yet.If you travel back in time and meet someone named "McFly" ......... run.If you travel back in time and meet yourself, DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT kill you. I'll explain later.Modern technology is wonderful. It's no longer necessary to generate 1.2 Gigawatts of electricity to make the DeLorean go. Today, we can do the same thing with an old refrigerator.When you watch it for the second time (and I know many of you who will), see if you can keep track of where the $7000 was spent.I spend a lot of time around high tech engineers. This is exactly how they are. This is why I believe the next big advance will happen this way.You almost expect the "Geek Squad" to come racing around the corner in their little geek squad VW's ............. but they don't.This film exercises a part of your brain that you may not have used in awhile. Maybe that's why it aches for a day or two afterwards. If this happens, only TV until it gets better.If these geeks can make a great movie for $7K, why can't you?PRIMER - enjoy.

Read more of my recommendations at FranksFilms.

I'm not gonna lie. I found this movie pretty confusing the first time I watched it. However, even when it left me confused it was highly entertaining and probably one of the best 'time-travel' movies I've ever seen. There are a lot of technical terms (or big words) but it's got a great overall tone to it. I found it completely awesome that a movie of this caliber was made on a 7,000 budget. The script was great and it's truly a movie I will remember for a while and probably have to watch a couple more times to really get everything about it. Solid flick though.