don't believe the reviewers, it is a great film

Rating: 10/10 (26 January 2004)

I went to go see "The Butterfly Effect" the day it was released. This movie is one of the best movies I've seen in a very long time. One of those movies where you leave the theater silent because you're too busy going over all of the facts in your head and small little details that made this movie unique. The last movie that did that for me was Fight Club, and that was a long time ago. Great plot, great visuals. You can tell that this movie's script was meticulously thought out. By the end of the movie, you end up matching so many early scenes to near ending scenes. Foreshadowing that is far from obvious. Nothing like Back to the Future, nothing like the Time Machine.
The main reason everyone else hates this movie is because they can't get their sense of Kutcher's comedic rolls out of their heads while watching the movie. This is their flaw, not Kutcher's. I've never had a problem separating actors from their other rolls, so I didn't have to worry about that bias.
One more thing I wanted to say is about the film's casting. The child actors were cast amazingly well. Three separate ages for the three main players in the film. You will be convinced that they are the same person at different ages. Best child actor matching I have EVER seen in a movie.
My rating for this film is 9 1/2. (I never give out 10s except for Casablanca and Kurosawa :)