PRIMER

Ever have a movie make you feel like a complete idiot? The kind of movie that, when it ends, makes you feel like a hammerhead because you have no idea what was going on the whole time? “Primer” did that to me and I didn’t like it. Fortunately I overheard several people attempting to engage in a little post-film conversation and they too had no idea what the f**k had happened. In fact, I think they were even more confused than I was. AH HA! Take that, movie! You’re not making a monkey out of me! I reserve that duty for malt liquor.
The film opens on a group of engineers working in a garage building different gadgets, hoping to come up with the next big thing. Two of these guys decide to team up on their own to take on a super secret project, a project that ultimately brings forth a big metal box that, when tested and perfected, will end up changing the way how everyone lives. Thing is, we’re never told just what exactly what this thing is or is supposed to ultimately do. Kind of a cool idear there, especially since the first third of this film reels you in to these guys’ project by the amount of passion they pour into the thing. But then the tests grow further out of control, endangering the health of the two engineers, and new characters that aren’t very well built or even introduced show up and the ambiguity of the whole thing just gets so much that it loses the audience and never gets them back.

Apparently, further viewings are supposed to bear clarity, but this film is not the intriguing puzzle that the filmmakers wish it to be. Nothing in this film inspires audiences to go back and study its twisting turning events. Instead it inspires plenty of head scratching and maybe a little irritation.