A number of good ideas that have never been seen before, let alone together in one good film

Rating: 10/10 (5 November 2004)

A film I would place as the best of the year if you enjoy thought provoking films; especially those that don't stray too far into the 'background reading required' areas of Donnie Darko and the like. The film is best watched with no prior knowledge of the plot, so don't read the posts about it on this site before you watch it, if you haven't already. So, without spoiling the film for anyone who's not yet seen it, The Butterfly Effect is one of those truly engaging films that convincingly takes you a long way from your seat as it runs its course, further away from where you join it than any other I can think of, in fact. It is also an innovative and intelligent -if not quite technically (read: nit-picking-ly) flawless- use of a now-hackneyed plot device (don't cringe): time travel.
So as to leave the discovery of the film open to anyone planning to watch it, I won't go into how time travel is rescued from the stainless steel crass-ness of TimeCop, Back to the Future, Austin Powers (albeit satirically), et al; suffice to say, that it is, and as a physicist, and ex psychology and philosophy student, I loved how it was done enough to register here just to post this.
enjoy