A great potential wasted through unbelievable characters and a lack of understanding of its own concept

Rating: 5/10 (19 July 2011)

It might be unfair to The Butterfly Effect (TBE) that I came fresh from watching Juno, a movie which really stands out due to its cast of sincere and believable characters, but TBE's biggest flaw is indeed that it is based entirely around awkward and severely unsympathetic characters, including, but not limited to, its main character.
The major theme of the movie is extremely appealing to me. First, there's the ability to go back in time and change key events of your life in hope of seeing what could have become of you and those around you, basically time travel without any kind of fantasy bogus, which I think is very admirable. And then the entire concept of the butterfly effect, which the movie is named after - the idea that any change however small can cause a chain effect resulting in an entirely different future. I find this "what if..." concept extremely fascinating, and was really hoping for the movie to explore it.
However this is exactly where TBE falls flat on its face - What it deals with has nothing to do with the Butterfly Effect. I can think of a ton of minor actions and choices in my life that have ended up shaping the person I have become, and will continue to evolve into. Decided to go to a certain spontaneous party, meeting certain people, that would go on to introduce you to other circles, experiences, new hobbies, new music, etc., eventually influencing who you might end up spending the rest of your life with, what kids you will or will not have, and so on. But what Evan, our (completely not) likable main character does, is go back and change major traumatic events of his life causing an almost instant and drastic change in one or more of the movies deck of characters. Apparently -everyone- in the movie is extremely mentally unstable and able to suddenly have an incredible change of heart and even go as far as to killing someone for being jerks, despite the fact that they are normal good hearted people in the other realities. This might make sense if they have been pushed into a different social situation that has influenced their person over the years, but that isn't what happens. Instead we're treated to this idea that we should all be lucky we didn't end up as heroin addicts in jail with everyone you know being brutally murdered, because apparently there's a 50/50 chance between that and whatever other life you could be living. Sliding Doors is a romantic comedy, and it was able to demonstrate the butterfly effect much, much better than this movie ever comes close to.
I realize The Butterfly Effect is just a stupid teen drama and shouldn't be taken too seriously, or treated as a "realistic" movie, but I also feel the theme it deals with IS very serious, and has the potential of showing how incredible the concept of actual real life "destiny" is. A potential that is unfortunately dropped on the floor and never picked up.
One thing I deed feel strongly from this movie was that it was heavily influenced by Hollywood producers wanting something more simple and action packed than the original intention. Especially the ending is so awkward and out of tune with the theme of the movie that I just had to watch the director's cut ending immediately after seeing the theatrical cut. Unfortunately this ending is possibly even worse and only displays that the directors didn't have any idea where to go with the movie either. And well, looking them up on IMDb shows that their other major projects were Final Destination 2 and Final Destination 4, and I immediately feel stupid for even trying to take this movie seriously. What I don't get, however, is why everyone else have been bugging me to see this "amazing" movie for so long...