I watched this once and felt totally confused at the end of it. Ive since read many post and chased many timelines filling in the blanks.
Has anyone fully understood this movie with just one viewing?
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"Youth is wasted on the young" George Bernard Shaw
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Has anyone fully understood this movie with just one viewing?
The first time I was toally mindf_cked!
Im the Alpha and the Omoxus. The Omoxus and the Omega
Dude, same here. Definitely needs at least a second viewing to even BEGIN to wrap your brain around the timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly stuff (as The Doctor would say).
pinnacle3learning.com
Hey Omoxus - how's it hangin?
I was mind fried too.
What hump?
Exactly, all one really needs to know is that they traveled in time and have to do a lot of crap to keep some sort of continuum going...it's not meant that you understand all the things that they feel the need to do, just that they do them...and you're right, not all the details are provided....I suppose it is just to keep you formulating your own idea of what is going on.
I have to admit. The more I watch movies like this, the more I pick up things on "first viewing".
When I watched this movie, one of the things I picked up was a possible relationship between their inability to write normal and them sticking their hands in the original machine.
That's odd @Zenbudda (great name btw!) Since I had a totally different take on that.
In my dreams, I have a terrible time writing anything. Even a simple phone number results in squiggles and lines that make no sense.
I understand their inability to write as a distortion effect: they're no longer "inside reality" but more in a dream world. Thus the things that preplex us in dreamland are now effecting them in reality-land. I looked at that scene as a tremendous bit of film-making!
Did I understand this movie in first viewing? Mostly, but watching it 2-3 more times has REALLY helped! I love this film and place it in my Top 20 (which is a highly exclusive group!) of all time!
I understood it the second viewing, and I've understood lots more, during frequent viewings.
The time travel is only the plot-device that drives the story, okay?
The time travel is fun, cool, dangerous...
The real story is about Aaron's need to control everything. Once you take your eyes away from the neat stuff with the time travel, and start paying attention to Aaron, you realize that there is a Shakespearean story here.
I can add lots more, because I've studied this film for years. Oh, and here are some Spoilers! LMK if you have more questions.
Cheers,
Fiona
[SPOILER!!!]
Aaron manipulates Abe, and he manipulates everyone around him. He keeps returning to the night party because he wants to manipulate what happens there, in order to make himself become a hero in the eyes of a girl.
Abe wants to advance science.
Aaron wants only to manipulate. Hell, he even lies to his wife, telling her that there are birds in the attic, when
[SPOILER]
that is his own tied-up body making a ruckus in the attic.
I understood it the second viewing, and I've understood lots more, during frequent viewings.
The time travel is only the plot-device that drives the story, okay?
The time travel is fun, cool, dangerous...
The real story is about Aaron's need to control everything. Once you take your eyes away from the neat stuff with the time travel, and start paying attention to Aaron, you realize that there is a Shakespearean story here.
I can add lots more, because I've studied this film for years. Oh, and here are some Spoilers! LMK if you have more questions.
Cheers,
Fiona
"He keeps returning to the night party because he wants to manipulate what happens there, in order to make himself become a hero in the eyes of a girl."
I really don't think that was his motivation at all. Firstly, the Aaron that does the actual rescuing never get's any of the credit - in fact he has to live on the run (twice, since there are three Aarons by the end two of which aren't supposed to be in that timeline). Secondly, at no point does it say that Aaron is interested in the girl in this way, or interested in being a hero. He doesn't brag about the heroics at all.
His motivation, as I see it, is guilt. Obviously in one timeline something terrible happened - maybe the girl was shot by the guy I don't know (this is why her father ended up coming back in time, I think). Aaron blames himself for this, apparently because he invited her ex-with-the-shotgun to the party - so he decides to loop back around and try and fix it. And he does.
"Abe only wants to advance science."
Actually, abe is the only person who actually murders somebody (himself) in the film. I'd say that was more manipulative than locking yourself in the attic :-)
What?! Abe murdered his other self?! Where was that?! All I saw was him gas his old self and lock him in the bedroom. Didn't it show him break out of the bedroom at the same time Aaron was breaking out of the attic?
Coming Soon... The December Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qj7fRpcXRI
Wow, thanks for writing this! Funny how a brief comment can improve my appreciation for one of my favorite movies.
sharejoe_bananas73, I haven't watched PRIMER in probably 2 years, so let's make a pact!
I do remember it well, but this is the sort of film that grows with the viewer.
I'll watch it again on 11/18- or 19 /2011.
Will you come back here?
If not, I'll just continue yakking, now and then ... lol ... because I love to talk about this movie.
All best and happy holidays to everyone!
Fiona
Science first! And information: also first!
I maintain that this film is IMPOSSIBLE to understand on the first viewing. If anyone can claim that they completely understood it first time without having to rewind the movie about a dozen times then you deserve the Nobel Prize.
Not that I'm complaining, this movie is the biggest mind**** I've ever seen. I still don't quite understand all of it but after over an hour's research into the storyline after watching it, I think I managed to figure most of it out :P
I maintain that this film is IMPOSSIBLE to understand on the first viewing.
If anyone can claim that they completely understood it first time without having to rewind the movie about a dozen times then you deserve the Nobel Prize.
I still don't quite understand all of it but after over an hour's research into the storyline after watching it, I think I managed to figure most of it out
It takes two viewings or three to really get the right perspective on the film.
Anyone who says "first time, got it all" is a liar or delusional.
I suppose if someone read "The Primer Universe" first, they would know almost everything before they saw the film for the first time. It also explains their hand-writing, their bleeding ears, and the Granger Incident. It was the first source to catch the references to Magic:The Gathering, Carruth's favorite.
It was the first source to catch the references to Magic:The Gathering, Carruth's favorite.Wait what? Are you telling me the use of palladium in the machine was an MTG refference?
The Past is an illusion. It is indeterminate and probabilistic.share
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The movie has one of the most complicated plot I've ever seen. By the end, I was barely able to make anything out of it. i felt like a moron.
But hey, It's the way narration is constructed. The movie just implies even the major plot points and it gets pretty complicated. So there's no shame, I guess.
To me, it gets much too radical. As fascinating as it is, I think that it'd be better if the movie was slightly more descriptive.
You are propably wondering whether this is my singature or not.
My second time watching this was like a first time because my real first viewing was made totally high on the brains. I only got some snapshots and the time travel idea out of it.
So... the better first time I was following it pretty easy until the 3rd act popped in and then it dismembered any attempt at puzzling the thing out.
I guess I'll have to give it a second second viewing :)
The Past is an illusion. It is indeterminate and probabilistic.share
Honestly the biggest problem for me was the fact that the sound quality is incredibly bad, I am not one to easily complain about these things but this film just has the worst sound quality of all time.
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