This is the anti "It's a Wonderful Life" **SPOILERS**

Rating: Null/10 (18 August 2004)

I had the luxury of not knowing who Ashton Kutcher was before seeing this film, so I could enjoy the film without the preconceptions I saw from others. I saw the theatrical version first, then the director's cut.
I found this to be a very effective movie that didn't deserve the panning (on plot and acting) from the critics. Some of the plot "holes" that were pointed out, aren't. And I'm no acting expert, but the performance by the 13-year old Tommy sociopath was chilling.
One critic said this movie borrowed from Asimov's "The End of Eternity", Clarke's "The Sound of Thunder", and "Back to the Future". I think the philosophical roots owe more to "It's a Wonderful Life", Frankenstein, Quantum Leap, and "12 Monkeys". So here are my thoughts.
It's (not) a Wonderful Life: The Frank Capra philosophy is that people make mistakes but the good you do has lasting impact. BE's approach is that the good you do doesn't matter. (Yes, Evan did do good, even if only off-screen. He was a nice kid) You never get another chance to correct your mistakes. Now that's a depressing philosophy, which doesn't seem to work in my world. It may be a noble sacrifice to help everyone you love by not being born, but it's not a victory and no parent would find it a comfort. Babies are about unlimited potential.
Playing God- Frankenstein and (Don't) Quantum Leap: QL's hero played God, and was rewarded with making lives better. Here, Evan tries the same approach, to no avail. The writers pretty much stacked the deck against Evan in BE. He becomes his own Frankenstein and kills himself. The butterfly effect isn't biased toward disaster, except in this movie. Now, in the real world, when something doesn't work, you try something else. We all "play God" every day, in that we make choices that affect other people. This is taken to it's limit when you become the parent of a young child. You accept the responsibility. "You can't play God" doesn't make sense as a plot idea.
12 Monkeys: "It doesn't matter how hard you try, you can't avert disaster." Both Bruce Willis' character and Evan try to do the right thing, but the fates (really, the writers) foil their attempts and they die in futility. They are finite and flawed and they shouldn't have bothered in the first place.
One thing that bugs me - the supernatural tie-in. I hate the concept of the "Bad Seed", which is essentially condemning the baby before he's born. Evan is tragic because he can't accomplish anything by being alive. If God is involved ("You have no soul"), why let him be born? What's the point of the "miracle" that Evan's mother mentions?
So, I liked the movie for it's hard-nosed look at the paradoxes of time-travel , but hate the "rules" that make it up. Most of this comment is me expending energy to complain about BE's implied world-view. That's what a good movie should do.