Primer by Connor Murray

I recently watched the Independent film "Primer" and I must say that it was both the most confusing and best Sci-Fi movie I have ever seen. This film is described many different ways when explaining, so here goes... This film is about an engineer who (basically by accident) creates a machine that can transport the user back in time. This is not your typical time travel plot by any means and the movie gradually gets weirder and more confusing. But at the same time the movie gets more suspenseful and more intriguing as well. The two main characters Aaron (Shane Carruth) and Abe (David Sullivan), realize that Abe's accidental invention is much to valuable to market, thus, they begin to use the machine for simple financial gain in the beginning. But when something goes terribly wrong, they realize that they may be in over their heads. I was actually kind of frustrated at the end of this movie because I liked the movie but I still had a lot of questions that had to be answered. Reading some of the threads on IMDb.com was quite helpful and after having many of my questions answered, I realized just how good this movie was. This is like no time travel movie I have ever seen, because it was made in a much more realistic and believable sense than the typical time travel movie. Not only were many of the terms and ideas in the movie actually related to the real-life explanations about, and aspects of time travel, but the acting and directing in general were also quite impressive. Shane Carruth also wrote and directed this gem which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2004. The main reason I decided to blog about this film is because it is an Independent film that was made on a budget of about 7,000$. That aspect of the film reminded me of El Mariachi which was also made on a budget of 7,000$. I think the fact that Carruth and Rodriguez were both able to make award winning movies on such low budgets truly shows just how talented both of these directors are. After having watched Primer, there was a certain sense of mystery behind the film that I have never felt before. Carruth did an amazing job of giving the audience snippets of information to keep them interested and build the suspense, while he left the main questions at unexplained. I found that the second time you watch this film, you understand and see A LOT more of it and it is very helpful in truly understanding what is going on. I can't say that I would recommend this film to anyone, but I would certainly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good and at times confusing Sci-Fi movie.