Primer

   The movie, Primer, has a fast moving storyline that is about time travel.  To me, the first 15-20 minutes were extremely confusing because I had no idea what was going on, they talked about Physics which I do not know much about. The characters do not exactly tell what they are doing or what they will do next and it ends suddenly without letting the audience feel any relief toward what just happened.   This film was different than other time travel movies because the others always seem to what to change the past and fix the mistakes that people made before. The role of having doubles was new to be because in most films they don’t have such things.  

Limbo

   Primer was an interesting game.  The setting was Gothic and dark and I was waiting for something to happen. At first, I was confused because the character just came up on the screen and was just standing there. I pressed random buttons to see if he would move.  There were absolutely no instructions on how to begin and play the game so my initial response was me wondering why. The setting was suspenseful and creepy; the sounds get louder and soften out and it was a strange sound which made me feel very isolated. There were also unlimited lives to continue on with the game, which I found different than normal videogames. The only light in the game was the character’s eyes which represent his life. As the light from his eyes fade, the game starts all over.

Primer

I didn't really understand Primer and am relying on lecture today to fill me in. I understood that the two main characters built a time machine (and that they had doubles because of their going backwards and forwards in time). But what caused the Aaron to run away in the end to France and the other to stay? Did it get to a point where it was just too much for them to handle? Or is the Aaron in France the double, with the original Aaron, oblivious to time traveling, stayed back and resumed his normal life? 

I am aware that Abe used a fail-safe "box" to go backwards in time to before he even told Aaron of hm what he's found... But something seems to have backfired because Aaron is still aware of the machine's capabilities. As said above, I'm relying on lecture to fill in the missing gaps... 

Time travel is always in interesting concept to explore, and I think the director/writer's deliberate use of diction and frame shooting (although confusing) works very well with the content and message of his film. 

Primer

The movie, Primer, is a fast-paced science fiction film about time travel. This movie is hard to follow along with, due to its vague and unexplained scenes. Rather than answering questions that the audience may have throughout the story, the movie keeps moving forward rapidly; this movie ends without answering questions or clarifying the storyline. Contrary to other time travel stories, where the focus is usually on changing the past to make a character's life better or trying to ensure that the world isn't impacted by a small task that had been done, Primer focused more on the conflict between "doubles". Many time-travel films tend to disregard the idea of "doubles" and the concept of overlap in the timeline of the characters. Primer is definitely a refreshing film that changes up the stereotypical time-travel story. Additionally, this film seemed to suggest that time travel was not a bad thing, but humans made it faulty because of selfish reasons, which is a large element shown within the film.

Also, Primer has a lot of different filming techniques that people were not familiar to; making the audience less likely to enjoy the story. Due to the impact of Classic Hollywood films, most people are used to understanding the story by having a grasp of the entire setting of the film, which is established usually in the beginning of a film. We are used to understanding who, what, when, where, how, and why things are playing out within the story, yet in Primer, I was pretty lost. I was confused by the part when the "doubles" came out and and why towards the end Aaron and Abe, kept going back into the past, attempting to outsmart one another and stop the doubles from ruining their lives. I wasn't even aware that the Original Abe was replaced by the Younger Abe, until I read an explanation of the plot online.

Primer

Primer is a sci-fi movie that deals with the concept of time travel and its paradoxical consequences. throughout the movie there is a great sense of authorial (or in this case directorial?, resistance. The characters are talking about concepts the average person surely wouldn't know, but the confusion is intentional. While the audience feels confused from the lingo, and maybe less confused about the concept of time travel, the characters are confused over the implications of what they built.

A key concept in this time travel movie, is that of doubles, or having copies of the same person in the same time plane. This is a concept that has been done before and I think it raises a lo of questions about individuality. The idea that another you or me could exist seems to diminish our individuality, we are not inherently unique and uncopyable.  We are no more than a collection of elements existing in a period of time to the universe.

Limbo

Limbo is a very interesting but enjoyable game. The controllers took a little time to get used to. Nevertheless, what makes the game interesting is its dark tone. In the game, the player guides a boy though different types of dangerous environments. The game is presented as black and white. It also incorporates many eerie and threatening sounds. This combination creates a very scary atmosphere for the player. Also, the boy dies in horrific and gruesome ways. These disturbing aspects of the game categorize it as a horror game. There are very few games that have incorporated such aspects successfully. However, Limbo is one of them and these aspects keep the user engrossed and hooked to the game.

Limbo

The setting of LIMBO is very similar to many of the gothic texts which we have read this quarter. The game is full of exceedingly creepy elements,  bear traps laying out in the woods, the way the character drowns, a giant spider, and the fact that there seems to be no way to escape the spider at the end of the demo. But it’s not just these elements that make the game frightening. It’s the very atmosphere of the game, it takes place in a dark and dreary forest, there is fog clinging to the ground, and much on the screen is out of focus.

There are also a lot of unanswered questions; a complete lack of exposition. You wake up, get off of the ground, and need to make your way to the right. There was no explanation of how to play or why you are playing, which gives a sense of desolation to the game.