http://dvd.ign.com/articles/608/608114p1.htmlIf 2001 was too simple for you...
April 27, 2005 - When Primer was released limitedly last year, many critics compared it to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Not because it was a complex space-drama about mankind's evolution, but because it left most critics scratching their heads and wondering what the hell they just saw. If the two movies share anything in common, it's their heady nature and necessity to be watched more than once.
Aaron (Shane Carruth) and Abe (David Sullivan) are scientists. Although we don't get a very clear explanation of their specific expertise, both work as research scientists in corporate labs and make a little extra on the side by creating inventions to patent. They're a lot like little kids with a Lego set: putting various parts together, and hoping for the best when they hit the switch.
Their most recent invention, however, begins to show some strange properties. First they discover it can temporarily run on its own energy without any electricity. Then they find that leaving objects within the machine creates a thick layer of mold, the kind that would take weeks upon weeks to develop.
Abe puts the pieces together and discovers exactly what their machine does: time travel. The granddaddy of all science-fiction discoveries, their machine first moves objects forward, and then backward a few hours in time. And when Abe and Aaron build a machine big enough, they can send themselves back, too.
This is where the film gets a bit weird. As the two find more and more uses for time travel, they begin to lose trust in each other. We're never quite sure who is being honest and who is using the machine for their own purposes. Both Abe and Aaron begin to discover secondary inventions and attempts to change the path of recent history, leading to a somewhat anticlimactic climax.
It's hard to discuss the movie in detail without ruining the events of the movie. It's also hard to figure out exactly what happens in the end. I've seen the movie multiple times, but the last twenty minutes of the movie are extremely confusing. Sure, the answers are there, but they are far from clear.
A large problem with the movie is how short it is. Clocking in at 77 minutes, with a good 40 of that exposition for the real conflicts in the movie, the movie is almost too short for what it tries to achieve. Events pass by so fast, the viewer doesn't know what to make of them. If only we had another few scenes here or there to clarify why the hell Aaron is so dead set at using the time machine to look good at a party towards the end of the movie and why that causes Abe to threaten his life.
Nevertheless, the movie is good, both as a thought-provoking film on science and as an entertaining puzzle. Just expect to give it a few viewings to really enjoy it.
The Video
Primer comes in 1.78:1 aspect ratio. This movie really shows its independent film roots. I mean, the film did have a budget of about $7,000, so this isn't a Michael Mann blockbuster meant to push your TV to the limits. You're going to get an ugly film when you pay less for it than you do for a used car.
Beyond the grain that covers the screen at all times, color in the movie is sometimes a bit weird. Characters with black hair sometimes look like they have dark green hair. Artifacts also pop up every so often, but it's barely a problem.
Surprisingly, for the no-budget, this movie could look a lot worse. It isn't perfect. It isn't tailor-made to your home theater system. But it's serviceable.
The Audio
The movie comes in Dolby Digital 2.0. Even as a 2.0 mix, this movie is below average. Dialogue can be hard to understand at times. I had to change the volume of my television set at various points in the movie because the conversations between characters range between impossibly low to blaring loud. The movie's music has the same problem and often competes with the dialogue instead of emphasizing it.
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