Why It's Awful: Despite its thought-provoking time travel-related premise, The Butterfly Effect is written with a child's understanding of the space-time continuum. The scene that sticks out like a sore thumb is when Evan (Ashton Kutcher) winds up in prison and, in order to prove to his cellmate that he can time travel, travels back in time to his childhood and stabs holes through his hands, much to his cellmate's amazement. However, if Evan did this, then the holes would be on his hands since childhood, and the cellmate would find nothing to be amazed by. Plus, by stabbing his hands as a child, his entire life path would have been changed in numerous ways, such that he'd probably not end up in the same prison cell with the same inmate. Rookie screenwriting mistakes like this derail much interest in the outcome, as the movie's slippery logic isn't keen to stick to any sort of consistency that viewers can put their faith in. The Remake: It's an easy one to fix: just keep a firmer handle on the rules of the time travel, relay them to the audience in a non-intrusive way, and don't make any bone-headed creative choices as mentioned above. Also, maybe ditch the sentimental ending in favour of the original, darker climax, in which Evan travels back in time to when he's about to be born and strangles himself with his own umbilical cord, in order to prevent any of the horrible events that follow. Though undeniably silly, it's also grim as hell and a less-slushy yet more affecting way to bring things to a close.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
