Being the final review, I finally let Jessica have full reign over the decision of what movie to watch. I had been avoiding this by saying this was my site, but really, she liked every movie anyway (wink).
The Butterfly Effect (2004) is a movie that I had never heard of. Jessica told me that she watched this dozens of times when she was a teenager, but I do not recall her ever mentioning her love for this movie prior to the night that we watched it.
Overall, I feel like this movie is a very good representation of what was popular with teenagers during the early 2000s. Everyone is wearing flannels, there is a teenage romance, and Ashton Kutcher is here, too.
Evan, the main character, is “cursed” with the ability to relive memories that he has written down in his notebook. When he does so, he is able to control his past self, switching the events of the memory, and thus creating a butterfly effect in the future.
During the movie, we see Evan put himself into several different scenarios depending on his choices. He starts as a typical “nerd” in college, getting good grades, to becoming a brother in a fraternity, then goes to prison for killing his girlfriend’s brother, also changing a memory so that he becomes limbless due to an explosion, and then finally ending up in a world in which everyone is as “happy” as they can be.
I would say that this movie does a good job of portraying a “supernatural” ability and how it can affect someone. Evan is clearly not “blessed” to have this ability, and his mind becomes stressed as he inhibits the memories of all of his past lives in scenarios that nobody will remember but him.
Coming to the ending in which Evan is able to let go of his true love, Kayleigh, was a good choice. While I do not believe many would go this route, as I think that many would continue to switch the past until their future is perfected, it gives the audience an idea that being selfless is the correct choice in life.
I am glad that we got to watch this movie, and that I was able to find some joy in watching it with Jess. Below, you can find her review of the movie that she holds in high regard!
“I was really excited about this review, especially being the last one, because I thought it was super special that I was able to pick the movie this time around. I had mentioned to Cyrus that we hadn’t watched many romances yet, which he talked about us doing, but clearly, he procrastinated because those are the least of his favorite movies to watch, so we were initially going to watch The Notebook. I had already watched that, of course, but at the last minute, I wanted to watch the Butterfly Effect.
I cheated this time around because I had already watched this movie myself, but oh my gosh, I’ve actually watched it countless times because when I first saw it, I loved it. I thought it was a really good movie, and I recommended it to everybody and their mamas, so I did just that this time around. I didn’t notice different things this time around, either, which was really nice because I watched it a long, long time ago when I was a teenager.
I was a little bit confused as far as how Evan was able to kind of rewrite his past. When he would read his notebook from his old journals, he would just be reliving the same memory, but then he would do it again, and he would change the memory by acting differently within the memory, if that makes sense. So I was a little disconnected there, but when I finally got into it, I loved it just as much.
I don’t really know what to say because I have already seen it so many times, which is kind of a crappy way to review a movie, because I already knew I liked it going into it. I also thought it was super cool seeing all of the actors and actresses play different scenarios with their characters because they had different outcomes depending on what the main character changed in his memory. I thought that was one of the really cool opportunities for the actors and actresses themselves because they got to play a completely different persona within the same movie.
I would give the movie a four and a half out of five stars. I think the only thing that bugged me was just the graphics, just because, at this point, it’s a bit older. I know the expectations for graphics nowadays as far as how movies can get and so I think I would love to watch the movie just with a little bit better graphics. At the same time, it did give me some nostalgia because I watched it when I was younger, too. It was good, five out of five, or four and a half out of five.”
This being the final review, I am glad that we were able to both enjoy the movie. Some of the movies along the way certainly lacked the quality that we may have loved to have watched, but this one did not.
I will rate this movie a three and a half out of five. I am glad that we watched this one together, and also happy with the fact that it is unlike any other movie that we have reviewed. Stay tuned for our final post coming this weekend, which will detail our top 5 movies that we reviewed this semester, as well as a farewell!
Check out our review of Smile (2022)!