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When you can create a film under $7,000
dollars and end up with a pretty esoteric and elaborate science fiction
film, that’s quite an achievement. “Primer” was a very low budget film
that managed to achieve considerable critical acclaim, as well as
respectable grosses, and it’s a film many have deemed difficult to
watch. Which is a complaint that’s with merit. “Primer” is an often
confusing film about a group of men attempting to build a machine. But
what makes it such an entertaining and rather engrossing bit of
independent cinema, is the dialogue. And Shane Carruth’s dialogue will
suck you in because the characters are so natural.
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They speak back and forth at a rapid fire
pace, they overlap conversations, and the screenplay is
written in which the characters refer to terms and
scientific elements without ever explaining to the audience
to bring us at their level.
Carruth never dumb’s down the
elements of his story
for the purposes of the audience. They
have to keep up, and they have to be kept in the dark, and
that’s why “Primer” is such a superior science fiction film.
The Macguffin of the film is a special sort of device that
has more advanced properties and can possibly be used for
technology or for perhaps a more metaphysical level in
science. |
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“Primer” explores how these men attempt to
create it, and accidentally build something else entirely. A
time machine. Whether or not they can deal
with it and the potential consequences from it is something that will
keep viewers watching. In the process, though, Carruth creates a “2001:
A Space Odyssey” for the modern age, a confusing elaborate allegorical
journey of man and machine, and the evolution of technology and its
potential implications. Like every inventor, these men seek to outdo
their imaginations and enter into something else entirely. Don’t expect
to go into this and think you’ll be able to follow it. I consider myself
an intelligent man, and I was lost the entire time. But that’s a part of
its charm. “Primer” is a great piece of low-budget sci-fi.
Shane Carruth refuses to dumb down talks of physics and machinery for
his audience, and because of that, "Primer" is an exceptional science
fiction film that's much more than what it claims to be.
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