Director's Cut = Predictable Ending and Funny Moments Meant To Be Taken Seriously

Rating: Null/10 (16 July 2004)

*-Catch it on TV **-Worth a Rental ***-Buy it Used/On Sale ****-Buy it New/Top Dollar *****-Worthy of a Blind Buy
"The Butterfly Effect (Director's Cut)" takes a unique concept and seems to take every step to ensure that the finished product is terrible. The movie is about Evan Treborn, a 20 year old college student who shared a troubled childhood with his friends. The first half hour is used to set up his childhood while leaving certain holes to be filled in later for shock value. Evan suffered from black outs as a child and in the hopes of recovering his lost memories he kept journals. These journals, years later, opened up his ability to travel back in time to change his childhood. What follows is the butterfly effect at work in which every little change alters reality in unpredictable ways.
The script is the first to blame for this film's downfall. I found myself laughing out loud at many of the scenes that were meant to show us Evan's troubled childhood. That was only the beginning. When Evan first goes back to change his past he goes to one particular memory involving Kayleigh's father. Evan prevents the incident by yelling and threatening the man. At the time of the incident Evan was 7 years old. Kayleigh's father was suddenly intimidated by the young Evan when he began talking back to him. I found this ridiculous as the man so easily went from commanding the children to being terrified of Evan. Most of the exposition in the first half hour of the film got the same response from me.
I will admit that the film did get slightly better once the characters grew up and the actual time traveling began. However, it was only a small step up. The acting improved quite a bit from the childhood sequence, but the film was marred by the complete lack of chemistry between Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart. Ashton Kutcher surpassed my expectations of his acting ability in the movie, if only slightly. His acting was still bad but it wasn't terrible like I expected it to be. He delivered his lines with little to no emotion throughout most of the film which eventually got distracting.

I watched the director's cut of the film which included a different ending than the theatrical version. I have read about the theatrical ending and was happy I saw the director's cut. Even though neither ending is fantastic I prefer the one I saw, no matter how predictable it was, as it matched the dark tones that were present throughout the rest of the film. I give "The Butterfly Effect" a * rating. Despite the overwhelming word of mouth this movie has received I would advise everyone to stay away from it atleast until it is available conveniently on television.