Primer

[Lizzard[MPE]]

Has anyone seen this movie? I would like to discuss it if so.

[Guru]

Right now 200+ MURCers are downloading it!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390384/

They have a good forum over there as well!

[Gurm]

The IMDB forum can be... umm... a little weird.

I've got this one out from Blockbuster right now, so maybe we can discuss it tonight or tomorrow morning.

[Ghostman]

LOL @ Guru

I have never heard of it but it looks interesting. I'll let you know if I watch it.

[Gurm]

Ok FINALLY watched Primer...

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...

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And I'm confused.

I have to say up front - it was VERY well done on the $7000 it reportedly cost to put together. However, it lost its focus about 2/3 of the way through.

The first 1/3 of the movie sort of meanders. Fine, no problem. But it's supposed to set up some things that it never really does. We're supposed to somehow care about the rich guy who eventually ends up as a vegetable... even though he's mentioned in passing as a potential source of funds that Abe can't talk to for some reason (is he the father of his would-be girlfriend?). But we don't.

The movie begins to lose cohesion after a while. It's not the out-of-order storytelling, it's just that they start in on stuff that they never fully explore. For example, at the end the original Abe & Aaron (we THINK it's the original pair) argue about Aaron's family, and there's the implication that Abe has something going on with Aaron's wife, or something. But I just don't get it.

Right about the time that they start killing/kidnapping/drugging each other and themselves, the movie lost it. I realize that they were trying to make a shocking transition, but they mostly failed to do so, and instead just made it extremely confusing.

So, some thoughts:

1. Where did the first person-sized box come from? Did Abe build it? Where did he get all the platinum he needed? He hadn't made a trip back yet, so he couldn't have all kinds of money... the rest of it I understand... well, ok not really. See point 2.

2. You can only go back in time to a point where the box is turned on. Limited-application time travel. Fine. But then how is it that the big box, the "failsafe box" takes them back to the midpoint of the movie? When it wasn't built yet...? See, that's what gets me. I think that they overlooked a couple of existential points in their own storytelling.

[Rakido]

i have no clue either, but the guys here made a (good? bad?) attempt to clear it up

http://primermovie.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=541

[Lizzard[MPE]]

oh i forgot i had made this thread, when i come home later i will post my thoughts

[Gurm]

i have no clue either, but the guys here made a (good? bad?) attempt to clear it up

http://primermovie.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=541

I read that.

I think my big problem with the movie was that they UTTERLY failed to convey a big difference in Aaron. Supposedly Aaron3 (or whoever) gets the drop on Abe, and has all these delusions of power and shit like that, but they never really convey that. You can't just show a character as being the good guy for the entire movie and then in one or two sentences (and, by the way, with a nod to Star Trek with the "evil" persona having a bum beard) say "oh yeah, he was really evil the whole time HA HA!". It doesn't work. That's what left me feeling confused and disappointed, I think.