A hodge podge film, sure to please

Rating: 4/10 (31 December 2005)

(DVD Director's Cut reviewed here) The Butterfly Effect stars Ashton Kutcher as Evan Treborn, and Amy Smart as Kaleigh Miller. The movie begins with a background of Evan and his group of friends as children. We are privy to certain parts of Evan and the other children's' childhoods during certain traumatic and life changing events growing up. These include situations of abuse, acting out, and potentially Evan having a mental disorder which causes lapses or blackouts in his memory. We see a few different age time lines in the film, as children, young adults, and adults.
In current time Evan has developed an ability to modify his past, through the means of some sort of mental energy (genes and or "reprogramming his brain"). This is where the better part of the movie happens, as he tries to journey back and make corrections. At this point, the typical paradox problems start occurring, perhaps solving one problem but creating other problems that didn't exist prior.
Unfortunately these events are actually supposed to be occurring. I like sci-fi, but I cannot fathom how one could use their mind as a time traveling device in reality. In my opinion, the movie would've been much better having these events occurring only in Evan's mind.
Although this is an age old story, basically of time travel, I didn't find the movie or story completely predictable. Ashton does plays his role very nicely, as well as his complementing cast. The child actors are OK, although maybe a bit flat but they do a good job too.
I'm ambivalent to recommending this movie. Perhaps there are better examples with similar story lines in Donnie Darko or Fight Club (or other movies involving dissociative and alternate realities).
4/10