After watching the greatness that is 12 Monkeys, I've decided to spend March watching time travel movies. Since I've already watched the Back to the Future series, I'll be starting with some more obscure entries in the genre and work my way back to some classics.
Every now and then you'll finish watching a movie and have no idea whether you enjoyed it or not...because you have no idea what the hell you just watched (think Vanilla Sky or The Matrix). So is the case with Primer, a low-budget flick about two engineers who accidentally invent time travel and then deal with the question of how to use their newfound power.
There are layers upon layers to the narrative that starts out linear (the first half hour is just technical babble about how the time machine is invented), but then it gets all kinds of complicated. In fact, it's so complicated I needed to watch it three times and then read a research paper on the film's plot and study several diagrams of the time travel mechanics online just to figure it out (I'm not joking either). It's impossible after a single viewing to understand, completely and entirely, exactly what occurs in the movie, and I wanted to understand it as much as possible before writing my review.
I can say with complete confidence that I understand the movie completely and can offer an intelligent diagnosis of Primer and its overall effectiveness as a film. And here it is:
Primer is bullshit...complete and utter bullshit. The reason this movie's reputation has been blown out of proportion is because it suffers from Inception complex, where just because a movie is complicated, people think it's great. The problem with Primer isn't that it's complicated; the problem is that it's poor storytelling. That's what makes it complicated. Certain information necessary to understand what's happening is purposely withheld and other information is either unclear or must be assumed by the viewer. If you have to read a research paper to understand the plot of the movie, then the filmmakers failed to do their job.
The other major problem with the film is that the character motivations don't make any sense. The point of the movie is to explore the ethical issues of time travel, but the example provided in the movie is petty and stupid. A guy breaks the ethical rules of time travel to stop a woman he knows (not his wife or girlfriend or anything) from getting threatened with a shotgun by her ex-boyfriend. Not killed or maimed, just threatened. It doesn't make any sense. If you have the power to travel through time, would you waste it making sure an associate doesn't have a shitty evening? Then there's the random guy who travels back in time who we really have no idea who the hell he even is or how he got back. Add to that all the implied action that occurs off-screen that we're told about through a dump of voice-over narration and we don't have one of the best movies ever made; no, we have an example of poor storytelling.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and 12 Monkeys both have complicated, non-linear plots that leave you with a sense of completion, a sense you've seen something complicated but also quite wonderful. Primer leaves you with a sense of having seen something complicated...that's it. It spends an inordinate amount of time explaining the time mechanics of the time traveling device in an attempt to seem deep and authentic. Fuck that! Tell me time travel involves a Delorean traveling at 88 mph or a phone booth. I'll believe it. Just tell me a good story and I'll believe anything!
Why It's Overrated: Like Inception, people watched Primer, were confused, and assumed anything they didn't understand must be magnificent. At its core, all film is nothing but visual storytelling. Primer is an interesting movie in that it avoids Hollywood clichés, but, like many Hollywood blockbusters, it fails to deliver what every movie must: a coherent and satisfying story.
Best Quote:
Aaron: Man, are you hungry? I haven't eaten since later this afternoon.
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