Primer (2003)

Featured Audience Ratings

• John M

  
  an extremely indepth technical tackling of the concept of time travel. I may have to watch it again just to understand everything. it was not dumbed down for the masses for sure. A very solid hard sci fi movie.

• Lorenzo v

  
  <i>"What happens if it actually works?"</i> Four friends/fledgling entrepreneurs, knowing that there's something bigger and more innovative than the different error-checking devices they've built, wrestle over their new invention.… More
  <i>"What happens if it actually works?"</i> Four friends/fledgling entrepreneurs, knowing that there's something bigger and more innovative than the different error-checking devices they've built, wrestle over their new invention. <center><font size=+2 face="Century Schoolbook"><b><u>REVIEW</u></b></font></center> A very intriguing story, taking a fresh and original look at the concept of time travel. The premise is brilliant, albeit facilitated by a load of technobabble. The multiple timelines of the story are very interesting, if a bit difficult to figure out. I actually had to go through a complex timeline to at least wrap my head around the story, and I suspect I'll have to watch the movie once more to put it all together. The production quality is quite low, as expected with a mere $7,000 budget, but it doesn't really detract from the movie. In fact, it makes it more believable - a proper budget would have just meant focus on special effects instead of story. Quite complex, but definitely worth watching. I would have liked to see the filmmakers go into more depth about the dangers of time travel. The bleeding ears and shaking hands are only two of the effects; it would have been interesting to see what some long-term effects were. In fact, what this movie sorely needed was another 20-30 minutes of screen time. More of an introduction at the beginning - the pacing is really off at the start, and the movie doesn't start going for a while. More filling in of the complex storyline, so it's at least possible to figure it out on the first go. And more of a build-up to the climax, so that it's a more dramatic ending. These are all flaws of a rookie filmmaker, who has written a great screenplay but made a merely good movie.

• paul o

  
  If you know what this film means, you are one of the two, a liar or a genius! My mind got blown and blown again with the film's abstract concepts. Deserves more fame but to those who discovery this gem, enjoy the unknown.

• Idrees K

  
  What it lacks in story, it makes up for by blowing your mind...over and over again.

• Greg S

  
  Two engineer/entrepreneurs accidentally discover a box that allows time travel, and quickly get themselves into trouble. Extremely confusing, but that's the point: when the two begin casually screwing with causality, both we and they lose track of what's going on and which… More
  Two engineer/entrepreneurs accidentally discover a box that allows time travel, and quickly get themselves into trouble. Extremely confusing, but that's the point: when the two begin casually screwing with causality, both we and they lose track of what's going on and which timeline we're actually in. If ratings were adjusted for budget, this would get a 5/5---it was made for an incredible $7,000!

• Carlos M

  
  Produced on a minimal budget of $7,000, this mind-blowing sci-fi mystery is extremely complex and intelligent, and it is amazing how you get more details each time you watch it and try to fit the pieces of this fascinating puzzle. A brilliant film for those who like to be challenged.

• Ginny  

  
  One heck of an addictive puzzling snobbish movie. Snobbsh in a way that it doesnt care to dumb down its script or story to the level of the masses. If this was a human being it would have the attitude of "You either get it or you dont."

• Daniel J D

  
  A move that, for better or worse, takes time travel seriously. For better or worse, that's really all it does--everything else is pretty average. Basically, this movie is directly proportional to your interest in the idea of time travel as serious.

• Dan S

  
  A constantly challenging sci-fi journey into the ever present theme of time-travel. Instead of leaving reality at the door, this film induces a fair share into it, as well as it's almost overbearing use of technical jargon to make the dialogue almost incomprehensible at times.… More
  A constantly challenging sci-fi journey into the ever present theme of time-travel. Instead of leaving reality at the door, this film induces a fair share into it, as well as it's almost overbearing use of technical jargon to make the dialogue almost incomprehensible at times. Where it succeeds is in the interest department, it is never uninteresting, although much of the time confusing. What I liked most about this movie is how the characters reacted, and how unique a lot of it was.

• Aaron N

  
  Abe: Aaron, I can imagine no way in which this thing could be considered anywhere remotely close to safe. All I know is I spent six hours in there and I'm still alive... You still want to do it? How do you logically explain time travel? Many movies have had fun with the concept… More
  Abe: Aaron, I can imagine no way in which this thing could be considered anywhere remotely close to safe. All I know is I spent six hours in there and I'm still alive... You still want to do it? How do you logically explain time travel? Many movies have had fun with the concept of time travel, but this film does a damn fine job of making you think that every base has been covered. However, it was made by a mathematician, who wants to make sure that all the dialog is extremely technical, which doesn't make for the most entertaining feature. Made for $7000, instead of venturing south of the border for some guitar case gun play Rodriguez style, writer/producer/editor/director/star Shane Carruth has made a heavily complex film focused on two guys who accidentally discover time travel. After heavily going over the details of all this, which eventually spells out that they can only travel back in time, the two plan to cheat the stock market. Eventually they venture out further to work out how to alter their lives, which drives them to paranoia and questions about their friendship. For an extremely low budgeted film, it certainly shows that a lot of care was put into its making. Shots are carefully planned out and its scored well (also handled by Carruth). However, staying engaged in this film is not easy. Its very into itself explaining everything without at any point lowering its bar so just anyone can understand it. It is interesting but damn if you really want to be involved to enjoy it. Aaron: What's worse, thinking you're being paranoid or knowing you should be?

• Stella D

  
  my head hurts

• Luke B

  
  A time travel movie that doesn't dumb down it's subject matter. Due to the dedicated thought put into time travel here, it doesn't create much in the way of characters or a plot. This is a very detailed movie, from time-travel side effects to planning out how to reenact… More
  A time travel movie that doesn't dumb down it's subject matter. Due to the dedicated thought put into time travel here, it doesn't create much in the way of characters or a plot. This is a very detailed movie, from time-travel side effects to planning out how to reenact a day if needs be. There's some great stuff here, the men trying to manipulate time to their own devices causes a lot of fascinating conflict between them. It's also rather dull and at times it's budget lets it down. But with a budget of $7,000 that's to be expected. Great ideas and a promising debut that requires multiple viewings.

• Jason S

  
  As soon as I figure out what was going on at the end of this movie I figure I will bump up the score. I recommend this one for folks who are into time travel and movies that really make you think.

• _kelly .

  
  an interesting, low-action very intellectual science fiction independent film. The filmmakers cleverly use audio and pull off some beautiful montages. The acting is raw - these are techs speaking to other techs which can be overwhelming. This film is more than anything, a recognizably… More
  an interesting, low-action very intellectual science fiction independent film. The filmmakers cleverly use audio and pull off some beautiful montages. The acting is raw - these are techs speaking to other techs which can be overwhelming. This film is more than anything, a recognizably *different and unique* piece of art.

• Drew S

  
  A completely enthralling, intelligent sci-fi mystery. It seems bizarre that a movie like this would even be made or distributed, with its lack of star power, dizzying plot, and 7000 dollar budget - but by some small miracle Primer forced its way into the science fiction arena and… More
  A completely enthralling, intelligent sci-fi mystery. It seems bizarre that a movie like this would even be made or distributed, with its lack of star power, dizzying plot, and 7000 dollar budget - but by some small miracle Primer forced its way into the science fiction arena and proved itself an incredible contender. Shane Carruth is the man responsible for nearly everything in this movie. He composed the music, acted the main role, edited, casted, wrote, directed...you name it, he probably did it. With that level of authorial control, he obviously had a lot of creative control over his final product, and the end result doesn't have a single part out of place. I would be lying if I said that I completely understood the plot. I think I can safely say that half of it made sense to me. The great part about Primer, though, is that it's involving enough to warrant multiple viewings. Even if you do lack the profound knowledge of spatial physics that the plot seems to demand of you, the premise is still an interesting one. That obtuse narrative might be frustrating to some, though, and that is Primer's main fault. It seems awful to penalize a movie for not explaining itself well, and the budget might not have loaned itself to such treatment, but Primer's a tough nut to crack.

• Adam M

  
  an art movie for engineers; it's shot and edited perfectly and although I can't understand what happened, it creates a tone

• Gordon A

  
  Ingeniously plotted mind bender.

• Mike S

  
  Cool idea, but not really my kind of movie. Maybe I was too sleepy when I watched it to have payed enough attention, but in the end it just left me confused and made me feel dim-witted. Alas, I should have watched it with subs lol :-)

• Emily A

  
  I love this movie. You need to watch it a couple of times to really wrap your mind around it, but it's so worth it. This is a sci-fi movie that is so grounded in reality that it almost seems like a documentary. Shane Carruth has a brain and a half.

• Nate Z

  
  [center][font=Arial][color=#b22222][img]http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/8468/photo083eo.jpg[/img][/color][/font][/center] [font=Arial][color=#b22222][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222]I was intrigued about[i] Primer[/i] because I had been told it was classy, smart sci-fi… More
  [center][font=Arial][color=#b22222][img]http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/8468/photo083eo.jpg[/img][/color][/font][/center] [font=Arial][color=#b22222][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222]I was intrigued about[i] Primer[/i] 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 [i]Mansquito[/i]). 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.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222]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.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222]Watching [i]Primer[/i] 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, [i]Primer[/i] 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.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222][i]Primer[/i] 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 [i]Primer[/i]'s talky and convoluted plot.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222]I was so monumentally bored by [i]Primer[/i] 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. [i]Primer [/i]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.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222]I did restart [i]Primer [/i]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 [i]Primer[/i] 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.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222]It?s not just that [i]Primer[/i] 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 [i]soooooo[/i] 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.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222]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 [i]Donnie Darko[/i] 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.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222]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. [i]Primer [/i]is obtuse, slow, convoluted, frustrating and pretentiously impenetrable. After finally finishing [i]Primer[/i] I scanned the DVD spine and noticed it said, ?Thriller.? I laughed so hard I almost fell over. The only way [i]Primer [/i]could be a thriller is because you?ll be racing the clock for it to finish.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=#b22222]Nate's Grade: D [/color][/font]

Read all 20 featured audience ratings