I watched The Butterfly Effect for the first time soon after it came out to rent. I had wanted to see it in theatres, but had been barred for my age.
Until today I'd never seen the theatrical ending. I find that neither ending is really satisfactory in bringing the story to a close.
The directors cut ending makes a gruesome sense in that it explains why Evan has no life line. According to that he was never born in the first place. However this leaves Kayleigh, Lenny and Tommy completely hanging in a netherworld of speculation.
The theatrical ending better wraps up the characters, but doesn't explain the reason that Evan has no life line. Perhaps it was a fluke? Perhaps the gypsy palm reader was a liar and a fraud? Either ending is completely unsatisfactory.
The movie itself however is brilliant. How many people wish that they could go back in time and fix the things that had gone wrong in their lives? or fix what had gone wrong in the lives that theirs touched? I know I would, but at the same time I wouldn't. What if things continued to go wrong, like with Evan, or what if the outcomes didn't really change?
The story reminds me of The Time Machine. No matter how many times the inventor goes back, his lady love still dies. Some things are just destined to be. In Evan's case things changed, but usually for the worse. He kept going back to fix things and ended up with the same crappy outcome.
Let's all refrain from messing with destiny.
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