Review of The Butterfly Effect (2004) by Candlelight — 24 Oct 2019

This movie was the first movie to have a profound impact on my life. It ignited my love for the cinema and my interest for time travel / time manipulation stories. I can understand people who rated it between 7-10, but to give it anything less is rediculous.

Poor critics' ratings and overwhelmingly personal grudges in reviews attached to them, instead of objective ones, like a professional critic is supposed to attach -- is the reason many people have no respect for critics across the board.

The movies storyline is deeply engaging on both intellectual and emotional level and will leave you thinking about it for days after watching.

This movie rewards veiwers for their attentiveness to details. There are almost no empty filler decorations, locations, lines of dialog or characters, everything is there for a reason. Detalization and narrative construction is on par with the greatest masterpieces in cinema industry. You can watch this movie many times over and you will notice things you didn't realize were placed/said/done for a reason or had a double purpose, or hidden meaning.

This movie has a very realistic atmosphere, relatable characters and real life circumstances on screen. It does add a supernatural element to its otherwise extremely natural world and exploits it beatifully to navigate viewers through many dramatic and often horrifying possiblities.

Fair warnings:

If you are just looking for a brainless, meaningless bunch of pictures flashing on the screen I'd recommend passing on this movie and going for a typical minimal effort Comedy, Drama, Action or Horror movie. God knows there is no shortage of these around.

If you come to this movie with a poisoned pre-concieved negative opinion about it or its actors you've likely already sabotaged your experience. Don't blame it on the film, it doesn't control your misguided expectations.