Butterfly Effect (thoughts & Spoilers)

[kungfusamurai]

Before I get into discussing this movie, I have to warn that I have to talk about the ending(s), so if you haven't watched it yet, and don't want the ending spoiled, don't read this thread! :)

I finally watched this movie after years of hearing about it. I remember the good reviews about it when it was in the theatre, so when it came on TV a few weeks ago, I watched it. I missed the first parts when he was a kid, so I rented the infinifilm DVD. Much to my surprise (or disappointment), the movie was different from what I saw on TV!

The TV version, which I'm thinking now was the theatrical version, ends with Kutcher's character sometime in the future walking on a busy city street. He sees Amy Smart's character, Kaleigh, but because he's changed the timeline, she's never known him, or something like that. He walks up and then past her and they go their separate ways, and that's the end.

Watching the DVD, the ending was different. It has him in the doctors office, he starts watching his dad's home movies, uses that to transport himself into the past where he kills himself in the womb. When I first saw this, I thought it was dumb. I preferred the theatrical version better.

But now I'm thinking about the movie. I read some write-ups on it, and I'm thinking that the movie isn't a time travel movie at all. It's actually about Kutcher's character being locked up in a mental institution and he's retreated into his own little fantasy world, coming up with alternate lives had his friend Kaleigh not been killed by the explosive. With himself going back and killing himself in the womb, I wonder if that meant he either really dies in the office, or he completely removes himself from reality, hopefully absolving himself and the bad thing he did as a child?

Anyway, that's my take on that directors cut. I still have the DVD, so I will need to play the audio commentary. Hopefully it'll give more information on what the directors were thinking.

Lastly, I think Kutcher was okay, but just because he wasn't doing his That 70s Shows type of character didn't really mean he did a great job in this film. I've seen it twice now, and I feel that he was a little too wooden. There were good dramatic moments, like when he kills Kaleigh's brother in one of the timelines, but overall, it probably would have been better had they had another actor in the role.

Any thoughts on this film?

KFS

[ironfistedmonk]

I thought this was a great film, I too saw this on TV first and then when I got the UK DVD it had the different ending which I think is the directors cut but I prefer the walking past each other into the sunset type ending. Ashton Kutcher wad good in this I thought, I've never seen the 70's show you mentioned, only stuff like Dude Where's My Car and Punk'd so this was a bit of a departure for him.

I never considered it a time travel movie, he only alters previous events in his life by changing his journals, thus altering his future, kind of like shifting onto an alternate timeline. I don't like to think too deep into these things cos you can read all kinds of things into them, I prefer to take the film as it is.

[Alex]

I idea that Ashton Kucher can change the future by reading is in itself monumental.

I agree with ironfistedmonk, I enjoy it much better at face value. I saw absolutely no indication anywhere that this is all some kind of fantasy for him. The dvd ending is much better imo, and it explains a lot of details which are left completely hanging in the theatrical cut.

[kungfusamurai]

I think there were a few moments where I figured it might have all been playing out in his head. Probably the most significant one that I can recall was the timeline where he visits a catatonic Lenny in the mental hospital. His friend suddenly becomes lucid and starts going on about how he knew something big was going to happen and that Kutcher/Evan should be there instead of him. Lenny just seemed to know a little too much about Evan and maybe he was playing Evan's guilty subconscience? The blackouts could also be explained as Evan going away to 'another place in his head', like that inmate he was with said during the second timeline, and that would also explain the overall scenario of what was really happening - it was all in his head. Everytime he tried to figure out the perfect world, in an alternate timeline, it would always end up that he and Kaleigh were never meant to be together, so that probably traced back to the fact that he killed her in childhood.

KFS

[One Armed Boxer]

I can pretty much take or leave this film, its only a small thing but I remember theres a plot hole in it which really bugs me, even though I should just let it go. At the start of the film it begins with a quote stating something along the lines of how even the flutter of a butterfly's wing can change the course of events...the idea being that even the smallest change can alter everything.

The film stays true to this showing every time Kutcher trys to change even a small thing, it changes everything and when he go's back to the present everything is different. However during the scene when he's in the jail cell, so that he can prove to his cell mate that what he's saying is true, he go's back to when he was in school and stabs himself in the hands...then like that he's back in the jail cell again in the present with scars on his hands proving that what he said it true! It was simply because it was convenient for the plot, when really every other change he makes results in the present being competely different, except for this one time!

Really though I hate it when a director films multiple ending to see which one gets the best audience reaction. It just seems like a cop out, didn't he have a clear vision of what he wanted to set out to achieve? Instead he lets the audience decide instead of the film being truly the work of the director, it stinks of commercialism.

Anyone seen the DTV sequel?