Coming to a Theatre Near You: The Butterfly Effect

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Saw the trailer for it right before the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Basically, it's a guy who manages to travel back in time through a bit of Hollywood hand-waving and change things around because he wants to marry his high school sweetheart. Of course, by changing one little thing, he changes the course of both their lives, and has to keep changing things in order to make things better. At least that's what I got from the trailer.

[fortyseven]

Yes it looks good. I want to see it.

[emperorharry86]

I saw it Friday. It was quite good.
The main character can read his journals and be taken back to times earlier and his life. He keeps trying to change things for the better, but he always ends up messing everything up worse than they already were. I reccomend it to everyone.

[DominusNovus]

A poignant ending too... Though once they brought up that possibility (don't want to spoil it for anyone), I knew he was going to go back and change that at the end.

Personally, If they make a sequel, they should do the father's story. I'm figuring it'll be darker, considering how he ends up. Or they could do a tv series spinoff. Kinda like Early Edition (anyone remember that?). He goes around trying to help people with his ability.

[wkwillis]

The psychiatric stuff was ridiculous. It takes serious physical trauma to make an ordinary person psychotic. That's not how you handle an epileptic fit. Guilt feelings about an accident don't leave you strapped to a table in a mental hospital, etc.
So was the jail stuff. Get real.
But it's still worth watching for it's treatment of the concept. Even if the guy is only concerned about his own life and friends, and not the rest of the world. Just stick your fingers in your ears when the bad dialogue starts.

[DominusNovus]

Originally Posted by wkwillis

The psychiatric stuff was ridiculous. It takes serious physical trauma to make an ordinary person psychotic. That's not how you handle an epileptic fit. Guilt feelings about an accident don't leave you strapped to a table in a mental hospital, etc.
So was the jail stuff. Get real.
But it's still worth watching for it's treatment of the concept. Even if the guy is only concerned about his own life and friends, and not the rest of the world. Just stick your fingers in your ears when the bad dialogue starts.

He didn't really have the ability to change anything on a major scale, he only had a few minutes each time (look at the scene with the knife, he got pulled back to the present before he could do anything).

And who else thinks that So Far Away by Staind is a good song for this movie?

[tom]

The makers really did not understand the Butterfly Effect, at least not the way I understand it. For example, stabbing himself in the hands would have intensified the reactions of his teacher and mother, altering everything that came after. Just having "stigmata" in our Christian culture would have altered the details of at least a few subsequent events. The chances of his ending up in the same cell at the same time with the same cellmate are astonomically long at best ("billions and billions").
BTW, I would sure like a chart of all the timelines in the movie - it would make it easier to follow ("can't tell the players without a score card!").

[DominusNovus]

Originally Posted by tom

The makers really did not understand the Butterfly Effect, at least not the way I understand it. For example, stabbing himself in the hands would have intensified the reactions of his teacher and mother, altering everything that came after. Just having "stigmata" in our Christian culture would have altered the details of at least a few subsequent events. The chances of his ending up in the same cell at the same time with the same cellmate are astonomically long at best ("billions and billions").
BTW, I would sure like a chart of all the timelines in the movie - it would make it easier to follow ("can't tell the players without a score card!").

I agree about the whole stigmata deal. Besides, even if he did end up in the same situation, he would've had those scars all along, so it wouldn't be a surprise to his cell mate (they wouldn't have just appeared. he would've had them when he got into prison and met his cellmate).

[emperorharry86]

Originally Posted by DominusNovus

I agree about the whole stigmata deal. Besides, even if he did end up in the same situation, he would've had those scars all along, so it wouldn't be a surprise to his cell mate (they wouldn't have just appeared. he would've had them when he got into prison and met his cellmate).

True, though the stigmata was the only real plot hole i believe
Great surprising ending

[Jesse]

Originally Posted by emperorharry86

True, though the stigmata was the only real plot hole i believe
Great surprising ending

The other plot hole I saw was that while most of the movie was based on the idea that he was changing the past by revisiting his blackout periods, some of his mental trips back in time seemed to be based on the predestination concept of time travel, like the one where he picked up the big knife in his kitchen or the one where his dad ended up trying to strangle him. In the "original" history that we saw at the beginning of the movie, what actually happened during those blackouts? I guess it's possible that the first history we saw had already been altered by versions of him from "previous" timelines, but if so why doesn't he remember any of those previous timelines?

Anyway, plot holes nonwithstanding I liked the movie, it was an entertaining thriller even if it wasn't always that plausible.

[DominusNovus]

Originally Posted by emperorharry86

Great surprising ending

I just bought the DVD of this, and I watched the Director's Cut of the movie on it. And the original ending is much more depressing.

(Spoilers)

In the Director's Cut, his mother and him visit a psychic while he's in college (just before Kaylie kills herself) and the psychic flips out, cuz Evan's got no life line and shouldn't even exist (good line though, on his part "if you're a psychic, you'll see this coming" as he takes back the money they paid her). His mother starts crying, and tells him that she was pregnant twice before, but they were stillborn.

The movie continues on without anymore major differences (except you find that his grandfather was also afflicated with the condition), until the very last time he goes into the past, while in the institution. Instead of a movie of when he first meets Kaylie, its a movie of his birth. So, he goes back to that and, as the doctors are carting his mother into the hospital (he's still in the womb), grabs onto the umbilical cord, killing himself.

So, he saves Kaylie, Tommy, and Lenny (his mother doesn't take it well though), but makes the ultimate sacrifice. You also realize that thats exactly what his potential siblings must have done as well.

Its a much more depressing ending.

[Marius]

Saw the movie a little while ago. The only big plot hole was the stigmata thing. Overall thought it was pretty good. Ashton Kutcher was surprisingly good as Evan.

[fortyseven]

DN, the Director's Cut ending is the ending I was expecting based on one of the trailers. They must have changed those parts during the audience tests.

[edvader]

Dominus Novus and others. How was THIS in comparison to 12 MONKEYS? THAT film was a trip. Worth renting? I'll catch it when it comes on cable-unless Wal-Mart has it on sale.Hope THIS film is NOT like the illis film.

[Midgard]

Agreed, the stigmata was the weakest part of the movie; other than that it was a creepy flick that absolutely freaked out my wife when we watched it. It was enjoyable though, in a morbid kind of way, despite the irregularities.

[DominusNovus]

Originally Posted by ED(Mister)

Dominus Novus and others. How was THIS in comparison to 12 MONKEYS? THAT film was a trip. Worth renting? I'll catch it when it comes on cable-unless Wal-Mart has it on sale.Hope THIS film is NOT like the illis film.

I always miss the very beginning to 12 Monkeys...

I enjoyed that one too, except that they end up failing in the end...

[David S Poepoe]

Originally Posted by DominusNovus

I always miss the very beginning to 12 Monkeys...

I enjoyed that one too, except that they end up failing in the end...

What do you mean they fail in the end? I don't think Willis' character was to actually stop the plague, but identify where it originated from and who was responsible for releasing it.

[fortyseven]

But he doesn't find out the real cause of the plague, so he failed.

[Jesse]

Originally Posted by fortyseven

But he doesn't find out the real cause of the plague, so he failed.

Yes he does, the red-haired guy is the cause of the plague. And then the last scene shows one of the scientists from the future sitting next to that guy on the plane.

[fortyseven]

Is that on the DVD? On the video there's nothing after Willis's char gets shot and the red-haired guy goes thru the gate.