Primer

You will not understand this film upon your first viewing, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a fantastic piece of cinema. Made for $8,000 by a first-time filmmaker, Primer is an exceedingly intelligent, thought-provoking, award-winning movie that compares to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey in terms of its ability to tackle brain-melting subject matter in a manner that elevates the viewer to new levels of thinking. Primer is one of the best time-travel movies ever made, if not the best.

So, I think there's something to be said about Primer's intelligence. It's a really smart movie made by a really smart person for a really smart audience. But, in one of the only instances in Hollywood, it might be too smart. Yes, being intelligent is an important part of making a good movie. Many good movies are smart movies. But if the audience doesn't understand what's going on in your movie, even if it's a super intelligent movie, it might not be a good one. Carruth's Upstream Color is leagues better because it isn't meant to be understood so much as absorbed; it wants to place us in the mindset of the couiple being consumed by the organism. Primer isn't impressionistic, though. And it's far too complex a story to be told the way that Carruth tells it. Now, it's possible that this is due to the low budget. I like a hard science fiction, and the first 30 minutes of this film are unparalleled in the "time-travel" sub-genre in terms of giving weight to its science. Obviously, it's all fake, because time travel doesn't exist (yet?), but it certainly gives scientific explanation its best shot. The problem comes in trying to unravel just how many timelines there are. By my count, there's at least 8, but I think there could be more than that. In a sense, it's okay if we don't know; it's actually creepier to think that this guy has spent hundreds or thousands of man-years going back in time to rid himself of all the other himselves. It works with his science, and it works as an interesting story (this story was somewhat streamlined in Rian Johnson's excellent Looper, which had its own problems). But if the audience can't watch this movie and break it down in a couple of viewings, the filmmaker has failed as a storyteller. And I think that's the biggest problem. The characters are... well, they do things that people would realistically do if they invented time-travel. They MIGHT even kill off all the other clones if they thought it would close the other timelines. But the problem is best explained like this: I've seen diagrams that break down the different timelines in this film, and the diagrams are confusing. And they're a SUMMARY of the timelines in Primer. Watch it as a man vs. nature/science thriller if you want... but the stuff that makes the film interesting? It's too inaccessible.

I realize they only had a budget of $100. I guess that explains why this whole movie is mostly a couple guys talking. There is a good idea here, but poorly executed. Should have rented but all the high reviews faked me out. This is a bad movie. Period.

I’m not one to rave over obscure indie films, but this movie is rather genius. It will hurt your brain but it’s extremely well scripted and executed. On a $7,000 budget by a talented and gifted filmmaker! I would watch this movie again immediately, and one viewing isn’t enough without the Internet to consult to understand the movie fully. Great film!

This movie is good but I found it hard to enjoy only because the sound quality was very poor. Difficult to understand the dialog even with headphones at full volume.

Once I understood the movie, it was really good. This movie just doesn’t make anything really…clear. I had to look up the plot on Wikipedia and explain the the plot to my mother and sister for 30 minutes. This movie is also pretty slow and boring. Don’t watch if you don’t want to think.

Shane Carruth’s directorial debut is incredibly smart and clever. A pure puzzle and completely unique. However, it would be almost a decade later before his ideas caught up to his style. But this is still a great movie.

I tried real hard to root for this low-budget underdog movie, but in the end, I would not watch it again and I would not recommend it to a friend.

The story is complicated and it will twist your mind into knots. There are, at the very least, seven timelines that overarch with each other. If you don't want to think, avoid this film.

Avoid this film, ithas the framework to be a great time travelling film, but fails in every aspect.