I rented Primer on a whim earlier in the week just because I knew that it delt something with time travel. I finally got around to watching it last night and I must say that it is quite possibly the best SF film to be released in the last ten years or so.
The story starts with four garage scientists who are experimenting with (from what I could tell), electromagnetic fields. From what I could gather from the techno-babble in the beginning, they were trying to invent a type of levitation machine.
Two of the guys break off from the rest of the group and decide to test the machine. They then placed a weighted wooden "egg" inside of it with a video camera. When the machine was turned on, little happened. They eventually find out that one the machine is started, it can run perpetually.
They then discover that if the egg is left in the machine for about 5 days, then it will grow 5 years worth of mold on it. This leads them to believe that they have created the first true time machine.
I highly recommend this film not only because it is brilliant, but becase they are little to no special effects in the film. This is exactly what Science Fiction is all about. When the time travel occurs, there aren't any bangs and flashes of light. There's just nothing.
The flick clocks in at a short hour and 15 minutes, but it's an absolute joy throughout. It keeps things fresh right down to it's final confusing conclusion.
I'm certainly going to buy this film on DVD and view it a few more times. Hopefully I'll better understand the end after that.
Has anyone else seen this flick?
I checked this out on On Demand about a month ago. I loved it, just as you said a perfect Science Fiction film. And just like you would love to see it again just to make some sense of the ending.
I did get a chance to watch it again yesterday, and I must say that a lot more of it makes sense. Someone posted a pretty good thread with an excellent explanation on IMDB recently.
I thought "sounds cool" and went to put it in my Netflix queue...but it was already there...
I just rented this one from Blockbuster but haven't watched it yet.
I read Ebert's positive review of it a few months back and it does sound intriguing.
I'll post my comments after I watch it.
I watched this last night.
On the good side, I thought the whole setup was really well done. The acting and dialog reminded me of just a couple of guys working and talking together..it didn't seem like 'actors reading dialog' but 'guys hanging around. The idea that the characters were trying to make an anti-gravity field and ended up maing a time-machine of sorts was pretty good. I liked that the time machines was not just 'something you set a dial for where you want to be' but it had rules and limitations. Putting the pieces together, it seemed like they were trying to develop a device that blocked out external fields like gravity and ended up blocking out whatever would cause time to flow in that local area.
One tha bad side, I got the feeling that the writing kinda fell apart toward the end. Everything in the story was laid out very meticulously and then the story falls apart a bit with the whole 'ex-boyfriend at the party' subplot introduction and the fact that one character went behind the others back and has been replaying the past several days or so to record what's been happening. It felt as if the writer had been crusing along with a good story and realized "hey, I'm almost out of film and I need some sort of climax and conflict" and rushed it in without enough thought or consistancy. Especially since they had several little sub-items (like the band handwriting and the bleeding ear) which were never explained/developed but *could've* led to some sort of conflict/problem but where kinda dropped. Actually, at the point where theAbe and Aaron see Thomas Granger stumbling around in the dark is where the story fell apart and that incident itself was dropped.
Good first effort from the writer/director/producer/actor
Sounds cool. I'll have to check Blockbuster.
I finally got around to purchasing Primer from Blockbuster.
I paid $10 for it used and the disc was in flawless condition so I got a pretty good deal.
(http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/9307/200pxprimer8rr.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
I watched it a second time and some things made more sense.
It was not until I found THIS ARTICLE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_%28film%29) that I truly began to understand what was going on in all of the timelines.
I suggest watching the film once.
Then, use the guide on Wikipedia while watching it a second time.
If any of you haven't seen it yet...I highly recommend it!
You will definitely have to watch it more than once to understand it.
GO HERE TO CHECK OUT THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE (http://www.primermovie.com/)
So, where do the scientist guys travel with the time machine?
The future or the past? Do they see dinosaurs, or Earth in the year 2077?
I just looked it up on IMDb, and I absolutely want to see it. I'm a huge fan of sci-fi cinema, and have been so disappointed in the idiotic and lame attempts at it in film over the past number of years, especially in the advent of made-for-cable and straight-to-video movies. My expectations for the flick are still fairly low, but at least I'm giving it a chance.
Plan9,
Neither. They don't do anything outrageous. It's a film that is anchored to reality. It's not a huge blockbuster SF film, it is real honest to goodness Science Fiction at it's best. It's a narrative piece and has almost no special effects to speak of.
LH-C, rent it please. You'll love it.
1-A film that features a TIME MACHINE is obviously NOT anchored in reality.
If it were, we would travel back to 2001 and prevent Osama from blowing up the Twin Towers.
2-What's the point of building a time machine if you are NOT gonna travel back in time?
In "The Time Machine", when that 19th century scientist built that time machine, he immediately used it to go to the past, and then the future.
Same for "Back to the Future", "Timecop", "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure", "Dr. Who", "Seven Days"...
Plan9,
When I said it was anchored in reality I meant that it's a very serious film and something that you could actually see happening. It's not a machine that is built to go back years. As someone else mentioned, the time machine has it's limits. In the film it's mainly used to just go back a few hours or a couple of days. It's all quite hard to explain on the board, and can only really be understood when seen.
As for Back To The Future, TimeCop, etc....they're not exactly great traditional SF films. ;)
Just a cpule of days? Man, that's a lame-ass time machine.
Dr. Who's Tardis can go anywhere, anywhen. And his series is far cooler than some Sci-Fi Network "realistic" movie.
LH-C Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
My expectations for
> the flick are still fairly low, but at least I'm
> giving it a chance.
Don't go into this film lightly LH-C.
Trust me on that!
Good to hear that you're willing to see it.
It will challenge your thinking in more ways than you can count.
Before you know it, you'll have watched it once and then you'll be scratching your head.
Then you'll be eager to re-watch it and piece everything together....if you can.
(hint: use the guide on Wikipedia I posted earlier to this thread)