Review of The Butterfly Effect (2004) by Ghostbuddy — 08 Jun 2008
The majority of modern day critics, are unfortunetely traped in a closed minded state while watching movies. Just look at the reviews for this movie, found on this site. And the biggest complaint you see is the plot is silly.
That the plot is nonsense. The truth is, the plot isn't grounded in what they accept as reality. And that prevents them from seeing the commentary behind it. The basic concept is. We have a group of friends that grow up, with a pretty f-ked up childhood.
Evan, the main character begins to suffer from blackouts. He is taken to a child psychologist, who assures Evans mother its nothing to worry about. And that children usually do this to forget about stressful and traumatic experiences.
He reccomends that Evan begin to reccord a journal to help him remember. When Evan grows up, and is in college. He realizes he can take control of his past self by reading his journal. Basically his consciousness can take a trip back in time.
Allowing him to change his past. This turns out to be a silly and unrealistic but suprizingly effective plot device. It allows the story telling to reveals things about the characters twisted past, in very interesting ways.
It allows the movie to talk about consequences and humanity in very intriguing ways. The movie is overall well executed. Effective camera angles. Great use of sound and image filters during the film. There is some less then satisfactory acting.
But I never found it to be laughably or unacceptably bad. I think the degree of which this movie was panned highlights a problem with critics. One reviewer basically critized the film for not having a typical hollywood ending.
Another reviewer critized it for being "complicated". This movie has a lot of good ideas, and if you approach it open mindedly, you will find an intriguing commentary wraped in twisted imagery, backed by great film making and editing.
Don't get me wrong, this movie is not perfect, nor close to it. But I think it would be a shame if the genius in this movie is forgotten. Because the movies plot refuses to be grounded by preconcieved notions, and because of a few minor fumbles by a few actors.
Seriously, don't take critics of any kind seriously on anything any more. Trust the adverage user score more.
This review of The Butterfly Effect (2004) was written by Ghostbuddy on 08 Jun 2008.
The Butterfly Effect has generally received positive reviews.
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