Sadly Over-hyped

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I admit I didn't 'get it' and still couldn't explain the film even after reading several detailed (and illustrated) synopses on-line. Briefly, two engineers develop a machine that generates a time loop, allowing for very limited time travel. Despite constraints on temporal displacement and the boffins' careful (at first) preparations, time's linearity is disrupted, which in turn disrupts the linearity of the film, and careful attention is required to tease apart the multiple parallel tracks of existence. The film was made on a miniscule budget, the script is terse and spare, and the acting is minimalist; never-the-less, 'Primer' earns its cult reputation. Worth watching for viewers who enjoy puzzles, others may find the film too cryptic to hold their attention. If you want to decipher the story while watching, turning on the subtitles is a good suggestion - subtleties in the script are key and the limited production values means that sometimes hearing exactly what the character is saying is challenging.

Pay no attention to the bad reviews they can't appreciate the uniqueness of this and for some reason I can't understand they expect this first time director and crew who mostly all have no experience to produce a big budget Hollywood production. Oh well their loss.. But let me explain why this movie is so good.First off Primer does not throw its plot in your face. You are essentially an outsider getting bits and pieces of information along the way just like the main characters.There is some technical jargon throughout the film that you don't really need to understand.. The only thing that you really need to understand is literally drawn out for you. The rest is fairly easy to infer from context. This film is directed by an engineer and this take on a time travel movie takes something that most time travel movies just kind of do whatever and don't explain the way it works. (think Flux capacitor was the only thing that back to the future said and you were just supposed to take it and run with it) primer doesn't do that. It actually gives you an explanation of why time travel in the movie works.. And it's so good that I bet some real engineers have messed with it after seeing this. That in itself is worth watching the movie.. Its brilliant. Because of the way the time travel works in this movie also helps develop the movie and the story falls into place. You as the viewer receive information at the same pace as the characters in the film and you understand things (or don't understand things) at the same rate they do. This is a very realistic movie and I could see real engineers handling this the exact same way as the main characters.Since this is a first time director you are not going to see a lot of fancy shot and there is no cgi or special effects. And it gives it a very nice overall feel of watching a documentary about the discovery of time travel but with better camera work than a documentary. Most of the lighting is all natural. There are no sets. The night scenes are night with enough lighting to see what you need but not so much that you are like "why are their two moons?"Primer is a journey into discovery. You get to enjoy the discovery with the characters and follow them through what unfolds. You will have some questions at the end but not much. There are guides out there that go into a lot of detail to really over explain the time line of the movie but you don't need it. Some information you might be looking for simply isn't in the film at all.. But if the information you are looking for wasn't known by the main characters.. You won't know it either (unless you are bold enough to watch with commentary... I never watch a movie with commentary.. Ever.. And I watched both director and crew commentary on this because I thoroughly enjoyed this movie way more than I thought I would.)Watch this movie.. Pay attention.. Listen.. And enjoy one of the best movies I have ever seen.

Let me preface this review by saying this film is not for everyone. This indie is frustrating and difficult to follow. And intentionally so. Shane Carruth set out to take a basic sci-fi concept and obfuscate it in nearly every aspect, but did so in order to ground it as much as possible. He complicated to simplify. The result was so aggravatingly ingenious, I felt slapped in the face. But that good slap that you think you want more of. The budget was $7,000, and that's all this man needed to play head games with me. There are some neat technical achievements here, but the central themes of Primer and the way they were impressively executed are what have my applause. 7/10 — watching Primer.

Watching the movie Primer for the first (and only time) made me feel stupid as an audience. For once, I never felt so clueless and doubtful in understanding a movie in my whole entire life. In my opinion, the movie was selfish for not making the audience get a full grasp in comprehending the film. I feel that a film is made for the purpose of to be watched by, if not the general public, majority of people from different backgrounds and classes. The movie is supposed to be made not only to be appreciated by the makers, but by their audience. A film is not meant to be stored inside a container, it's meant to be presented, watched, and enjoyed as any form of entertainment there is out there.