The Butterfly Effect (2004) |
|
The Butterfly Effect (2004) |
|
|
| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Drama |
Audio Commentary-Eric Bress And J. Mackye Gruber (Writers/Directors) Subtitle Commentary-Text Commentary Featurette-The Creative Process Featurette-Behind The Visual Effects Featurette-Chaos Theory Featurette-Time Travel Deleted Scenes-With Optional Commentary Theatrical Trailer |
|
| Rating |
|
||
| Year Of Production | 2004 | ||
| Running Time | 114:44 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | Dual Layered | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By |
Eric Bress J. Mackye Gruber |
|
Studio
Distributor |
 Warner Home Video |
Starring |
Ashton Kutcher Melora Walters Amy Smart Elden Henson William Lee Scott John Patrick Amedori Irene Gorovaia Kevin Schmidt Jesse James Logan Lerman Sarah Widdows Jake Kaese Cameron Bright |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $29.95 | Music |
Evenrude Jimmy Eat World Puddle of Mudd |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
|
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
 |
||
| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English for the Hearing Impaired English Text Commentary English Audio Commentary |
Smoking | Yes, An entire segment on getting lung cancer |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
This story follows the life of Evan Treborn. From his early days, Evan has seemingly inexplicable blackouts which occur around traumatic periods in his past. In an attempt to keep track of these blackouts and monitor Evan's condition, a doctor suggests that he keep a journal. Traumatic events seem to shape Evan's life, but they steer him to college, where he decides to study memory formation hoping that, through his research, he might uncover the cause of his blackouts and fill in the missing segments of his memory. After discovering poignant information about his past and rereading segments of his journals, Evan has what initially seem like flashbacks or flashes of memories that were missing. During a “flashback” Evan accidentally burns himself and wakes up with a scar he didn’t have before the flashback. This gets him thinking - can he change things? Can he make things better? Can he save the one thing that is important to him - Kayleigh, his first love?
Time travel movies would have to be one of my favourite sci-fi subgenres. Can you beat movies like Back to the Future, 12 Monkeys (highly recommended), Donnie Darko and of course, all of the Star Trek episodes and movies dealing with this issue? Some throw the theory of time travel out the window, but others stay true to the possibilities. The Butterfly Effect is unique, as rarely is there a movie where travelling back in time is possible by using the mind. Most require a machine to achieve this. This movie does show that one little change can make a huge difference. To quote one of the taglines: It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world.
The Butterfly Effect sees Ashton Kutcher in his first serious role. Most would know him from Punk'd as well as That 70's Show, the latter showing his talent for comedy, the former showing how many pranks he could pull on his friends. Because of these roles, perhaps no one would have taken him seriously in The Butterfly Effect. I know before seeing this movie that I was struggling with the concept. I must say that the movie exceeded all expectations, actors included. Kutcher was perfect for the part. The rest of the cast is amazing, with the beautiful Amy Smart as the love interest changing from a lonely waitress to a hot college student, then to a drugged-up hooker. All of these roles were believable, which is pivotal to the changing scenes. William Lee Scott is her brother Tommy, going from psychopath to religious fanatic in the blink of an eye. The rest of the cast, including Melora Walters as the mother, as well as the younger incarnations of the group, is excellent.
None of this group would have come together if Kutcher had not decided to produce one of the most passed-around Hollywood scripts in recent years. It had been floating around for six years, as no big name celebrities would back it. The directing duo of Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber were virtual unknowns, but they got their break when their script for Final Destination 2 was greenlighted. With the success of that movie, they were finally able to garner interest in this project. Ashton Kutcher clinched it, producing one of the greatest time travel movies since 12 Monkeys.
For all those who have seen the movie, especially my fellow theatrical viewers...
(SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) Was anybody surprised, and slightly disappointed by the dramatic change to the final five minutes of the movie? I was aware that this was a 'Directors Cut', in which I was led to believe that scenes were inserted into the movie to enhance the storyline. Some of them were welcome, while others, such as the fortunetelling scene, were out of place. The ending was totally changed. Initially, it involved Evan viewing a home movie of a birthday party and ending his friendship with Kayleigh before it began. Personally, I found this to be an excellent way of ending the movie. Surprising and moving, this allowed all the main characters, including himself, to live happy and separate lives. That was all changed for what the directors believed to be their 'true' vision of the movie. The finale involves Evan viewing a home movie of his childbirth. To save all those that he cared for, he sacrifices his life while still in the womb. While everybody leads happy lives thereafter, they are unaware of what their lives could have been with Evan. This ending is reminiscent of Donnie Darko, where the title character sacrifices his life by returning to the point in time where he was saved by Frank the Bunny.
This new ending changed my opinion of the movie somewhat. While still a unique movie about time travel, with a clever and involving storyline, the ending left me disappointed, and a bit angry at the directors and Warner Home Video. We are seeing an ever-increasing number of 'Director's Cuts', 'Special Editions' and 'Extended Workprints' (a la Alien Quadrilogy). I welcome all of these with open arms...with the use of seamless branching. Only a few distributors utilise this option, with Fox and Artisan being the only two that I am aware of. For drastic changes such as the ending of The Butterfly Effect, having two versions is a must.
Change One Thing, Change Everything.
The video is presented at 1.85:1. It is 16x9 enhanced. This presentation is nothing short of reference quality.
The image is sharp throughout with no edge enhancement.
Colours are reproduced accurately. A choice made by the directors was to give the flashbacks a grainy and desaturated look. While not overdone, it does distinguish scenes set in the past from those set in the present.
Shadow detail is important, with a lot of scenes taking place at night, and dimly lit rooms setting the mood.
There are no video artefacts to be found. This is only as is to be expected for all recent release movies. The Butterfly Effect does not disappoint.
The choice of subtitles is limited to English for the Hearing Impaired, as well as subtitles for the audio commentary.
The disc is dual layered, yet I could not detect a layer change. The movie itself is larger than 5Gb, so it would be spread over two layers, but there is no pause that interrupts viewing at all.
| Sharpness |   |
| Shadow Detail | |
| Colour | |
| Grain/Pixelization | |
| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
| Film Artefacts | |
| Overall | |
The movie has an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track encoded at 448kbps with an English 2.0 stereo track at 224kbps as well as an English 2.0 documentary at 192kbps.
Matching up with the reference quality video is an excellent audio track. Dialogue is right on the mark, with all words easy to understand and no problems with sync. There are no dropouts or hisses. This is a very clean audio transfer.
The surrounds are used very effectively, mainly for ambient noise. When Evan utilises his unique time-travel techniques, prepare for your surrounds to aggressively support your fronts and sub, providing a ride into the past. Music tracks are heard through all channels, with the rears acting as supports to the front speakers.
The subwoofer is used just as aggressively as the surrounds, especially for the above time-travelling experiences. But that is not all, as there are several explosions to get your couch rumbling beneath you. Several music tracks also utilise the LFE channel to support them.
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
| Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
| Surround Channel Use | |
| Subwoofer | |
| Overall | |
After listening to the audio commentary, I got the impression that the original theatrical ending would be shown in the deleted scenes. This is not true. (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) Ashton changes the past one last time by viewing a home movie of a birthday party. There, he sees Kayleigh and tells her that he never wants to see her again. Everyone's lives are then the way they should be, leaving Evan to burn all his records and pictures. Several years later, Evan passes Kayleigh by chance in the street. Both notice each other, but decide to continue on their way. Similar alternate endings with the passing by scene included are in the deleted scenes (Stalker Ending, Happy Sappy Ending) but there is no sign of the true theatrical finish.
A subtitle stream containing little or nothing of interest.
The writer/directors speak about their inspirations for filming this unique movie, with other cast members putting in their two cents worth. Strangely, the video of the directors talking is a very soft image compared to the rest of the interviews and film footage. They were filmed on two different sets, both being as blurred as each other.
Discussing the creation of the time-travelling process visually, there were many attempts at designing the look for the main special effects, from little shakes of the room to everything dissolving in a flash of light. Some of the effects creation is interesting, but if you have seen any other visual effects special features, you would have seen all of this before.
Psychotherapists and physicists should not do documentaries, as they cannot relate their areas of expertise to the average viewer. Chaos Theory is more easily understood by looking it up on the Internet, or by paying attention to Jeff Goldblum's explanation in Jurassic Park
Those intellectuals from Chaos Theory return to explain the reasons behind those wanting to time travel, and how Hollywood has allowed people to believe that with the right machines or thoughts, you could really time travel.
These scenes are available only through a Play All function. Each scene has a name and scene number. Using the chapter skip option, you can go to each one, or let the Play All show them all. These deleted scenes can be viewed with a 2.0 channel audio track, or with a directors' commentary.
This trailer is not 16x9 enhanced and has 2.0 channel audio at 224kbps. While the trailer sells the movie effectively, it reveals a little too much.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
Our Region 4 version appears to be the loser in the audio category. While our Dolby Digital 5.1 track is of excellent quality, it does not compare with the Region 1 Infinifilm edition.
The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:
The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:
While I cannot compliment the Region 4 release enough for the excellent video and audio quality, there is no denying that an EX/ES track would be beneficial (if I had that 6th speaker), let alone the dts track itself. While I would love to import this disc, I am more than satisfied with what I already have.
This is a must-see movie. Going beyond the implausible plotline and an actor who made his career as a comedian, this is a movie that will exceed all expectations. The one flaw is that the VHS version of the movie should be the DVD version, yet the directors decided to change one thing (the ending), which changes everything. Excellent video and audio, with plenty of extra features to keep you occupied for a couple of hours, despite some of them needing university degrees to interpret. This DVD will impress.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | SONY DVP-NS575P, using Component output |
| Display | Panasonic TX-76PW60. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). |
| Amplification | Onkyo TX-SR500E |
| Speakers | Jensen SPX-9 Front, Jensen SPX-13 Centre, Jensen SPX-5 Rear, Jensen SPX-17 Sub |