• Primer
    14 replies, posted
[b][url=http://www.primermovie.com/]Primer[/url][/b] [release]Primer is a 2004 American science fiction drama film about the accidental discovery of a means of time travel. The film was written, directed, and produced by Shane Carruth, a mathematician and a former engineer, and was completed on a budget of $7,000. Primer is of note for its extremely low budget, experimental plot structure, philosophical implications, and complex technical dialogue, which Carruth chose not to simplify for the sake of his audience. One reviewer said that "anybody who claims [to] fully understand what's going on in Primer after seeing it just once is either a savant or a liar." The film collected the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2004 before securing a limited release in US cinemas, and has since gained a cult following. [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_(film)][img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7f/Primer.jpg[/img][/url][/release]Who's seen it? Did you understand at the first time? I had to watch it twice to fully understand it. It's one of those movies that you have to actually pay attention to and think about to understand it. It's actually rather brilliant, especially when it reveals a [i]Prestige[/i] style twist near the end. And did I mention it was made with a budget of only [b]$7,000[/b]?
Nobody can understand this.
They start the machine and go somewhere else. At the end of the day, they go back into the box and come back when they started the machine. That's about all I got from the movie.
Would you recommend that I watch this film? I've been debating it for a while.
[QUOTE=d3450;27056445]Would you recommend that I watch this film? I've been debating it for a while.[/QUOTE] If you're into movies that require you to think, or if you're into low-key movies loaded in subtext, or if you're into movies that have some "HOLY SHIT!" plot reveals, then yes. VERY yes! Or, taste the Act 1 break for yourself. Context: Abe and Aaron are working on a device to reduce the weight of objects, but it has some rather unsightly side-effects when it spits out an object covered in mold. This act break pretty much sums up how the mechanics of the story work. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPflrB1jRq8p[/media] I friggin' [b]love[/b] Primer. A lot of the dialogue and scenes are loaded with subtext (to the point you realize [sp]they've built a working time machine[/sp] or [sp]each time they go back, it takes a toll on their motor skills[/sp] without either of them saying anything "on the nose"). The plot is complex, but still possible to figure out if you're paying attention (don't let anyone tell you it's impossible to figure out, because it's not). The reveals are downright amazing, from [sp]unplugging the batteries to find the machine still running[/sp] to [sp]revealing the time machine set back to the beginning of the story[/sp]. Plus, there's plenty of funny/witty/clever moments early on. And to think, it was not only shot for only $7000, but the director scored the movie himself, too! And if you still don't get it, here's an explanation: [sp]the time travel rules don't follow the grandfather paradox, meaning that changes to history do not affect the space-time continuum. This is shown in the scene where one of the characters' cell phone goes off, and it is outright stated later that only the previous revision counts.[/sp] By the end, it's outright shown that [sp]there are multiple copies of these guys running around, there are multiple time machines set to further and further dates back, and Aaron (who can only speak into a recorder having lost all hand function from all his time traveling) is going to commercialize the time machine with what is implied to be a mass time travel endeavor.[/sp] Does that explain it?
this makes inception look like a nursery rhyme. i had to go and look at a flowchart of what happened in the movie after watching it before i could even get close to understanding it
I got about 2/3s of the way through and completely lost it... Great movie.
Just because it's hard to follow doesn't make it ingenious. I enjoyed it though and watched it like 3 times.
Just thinking about this film makes my head hurt
Watched this movie and my brain exploded. Im sure if I watched it again i'd get a better understanding of what was going on. But at the moment I really have no idea.
To be fair Abe and Aaron are sort of confused too in the last act.
The ideas are smart but the execution is extremely noncinematic. I can think of two movies, Timecrimes and Triangle, that explore similar time travel concepts but do it in a way that makes it an interesting movie.
By the way guys, the writer intentionally made the plot hard to follow. In fact, I believe he intentionally made the plot so obfuscated to the point that you literally can not piece it all together with just what the movie provides. It was done purposely, to try and convey the complexities and inconsistencies of the paradoxes that time travel would create. Just so you guys don't try and crack your skulls trying to figure it out.
Am I really the only one who got it on the first viewing? It's easy: [sp]They both looped back twice using the same box after the incident involving Granger and knocked their previous copies out temporarily so they can fix the past. In the end, Aaron got addicted to the time-traveling device and Abe eventually learned to distance himself from it after realizing the trouble he caused.[/sp] Also, [sp]since only the last revision counts, characters from various time loops can die or do different actions without affecting the space-time continuum.[/sp]
I thought the main revelation was [sp]one guy can never 'fix' things because the other guy secretly set up a time machine previous to the one he showed the other guy later. So in effect the second guy is forever caught in a sub time loop created by the other guy, no matter what he does he can never break out.[/sp]
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