Mishalak Reviews: The Anti-Wonderful Life
Mar. 13th, 2005 06:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mishalakI saw three movies with my friend Eric yesterday before I went to the Second Saturday Potluck. All of them were older movies, but I'm going to review The Butterfly Effect as if it were new.
It starts off with the semi-bogus and quite trite line about a butterfly being able to cause a hurricane. In theory, yeah, a butterfly beating its wings could tip the balance at some point between something happening or not, but that's just in theory. Plus it has nothing to do with what happens in the movie because the things Ashton Kutcher's character does are about as akin to a butterfly as a Boeing-737.
The other thing I have to say is that this is the sort of movie that is wholly depend upon people making a series of bad decisions to advance the plot. Because of that I didn't feel much sympathy for the main character. The premise of the movie is solid enough, trouble is that the guy who should be our man the protagonist who we're rooting for instead has much of the audience shouting at him "You dumb ass, listen to all the people around you." Or at least hand us a reason to be arrogant along with him before it all goes wrong.
And it does go all wrong. I won't spoil anything by saying this (since they telegraph it very hard in the first five minutes of the movie), but in the end the main character decides it really would be a better world if he'd never been born and he goes about to cause that. It very much is the mirror opposite of It's a Wonderful Life. Which in a way is a movie that needs to be made, though this doesn't hold a candle to that classic so it's a shame I can't go back and prevent it from being made so some other team could try to do it right.
What: The Butterfly Effect
US$27.95 List Price on disc
Who's if for: This movie wasn't extremely bad, but I have a hard time of figuring out who would want to see it. Maybe goths who want to see someone try and fail.
Who won't like it: People easily frustrated by characters who can't figure out how to play along when the world around them changes suddenly and make stupid choices repeatedly.
Personally: Thumbs down, just a bit.
It starts off with the semi-bogus and quite trite line about a butterfly being able to cause a hurricane. In theory, yeah, a butterfly beating its wings could tip the balance at some point between something happening or not, but that's just in theory. Plus it has nothing to do with what happens in the movie because the things Ashton Kutcher's character does are about as akin to a butterfly as a Boeing-737.
The other thing I have to say is that this is the sort of movie that is wholly depend upon people making a series of bad decisions to advance the plot. Because of that I didn't feel much sympathy for the main character. The premise of the movie is solid enough, trouble is that the guy who should be our man the protagonist who we're rooting for instead has much of the audience shouting at him "You dumb ass, listen to all the people around you." Or at least hand us a reason to be arrogant along with him before it all goes wrong.
And it does go all wrong. I won't spoil anything by saying this (since they telegraph it very hard in the first five minutes of the movie), but in the end the main character decides it really would be a better world if he'd never been born and he goes about to cause that. It very much is the mirror opposite of It's a Wonderful Life. Which in a way is a movie that needs to be made, though this doesn't hold a candle to that classic so it's a shame I can't go back and prevent it from being made so some other team could try to do it right.
What: The Butterfly Effect
US$27.95 List Price on disc
Who's if for: This movie wasn't extremely bad, but I have a hard time of figuring out who would want to see it. Maybe goths who want to see someone try and fail.
Who won't like it: People easily frustrated by characters who can't figure out how to play along when the world around them changes suddenly and make stupid choices repeatedly.
Personally: Thumbs down, just a bit.
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Date: 2005-03-14 02:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-14 11:15 pm (UTC)