Director's cut version - what an ending!

Rating: 7/10 (13 October 2015)

For most of its running length, "The Butterfly Effect" is a well-made, gripping, but standard mind-bender. Anyone who has seen "Back To The Future" or "Doctor Who" or any other number of time-traveling movies and shows will be in more or less familiar territory. It's the ending that elevates this movie to the sphere of greatness. Oh, by the way, I'm talking about the director's cut ending. It's one of the most powerful endings I've seen, both emotionally (it gave me shivers), and intellectually (the way it ties in to the seemingly "throwaway" revelation of the previous stillbirths is so simple and yet so ingenious). Apparently there are multiple different endings out there, including the theatrical one. Which does make sense, as the director's cut ending is extremely bold and un-Hollywood-like, though the movie would be so much less without it. My *** out of 4 rating applies only to the director's cut version.