Unpopular Opinion: I enjoy this more than Donnie Darko

I know DD is a much better written movie, but I actually prefer TBE over it. I remember 20 years ago renting it from Family Video, along with Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle and enjoying both movies. I saw them back to back, but actually saw H&KGTWC first. At the time, I don't think I was aware that DD even existed. I did hear about DD a lot later and some things turned me off from wanting to watch it; the Stephen King-eque bullies and the ending where he is killed when a plane crashes into his bedroom. Now it was years later after seeing the Nostalgia Critic's review and bits and pieces of it on Pluto TV that I finally came around to slightly appreciate it more. Despite that, I think the movie is very overrated. Don't get me wrong, it's brilliantly written, but I feel like The Buttefly Effect was a much more effective movie. At least in my own personal opinion.

I can understand if people hate The Butterfly Effect because of how dark and cruel the movie is, but hating it for other reasons seems a bit petty. Like it's defiantly not one of the best written time travel movies and it does have a lot of problems, but the dark sadistic and cruel stuff Evan goes through during his childhood is even disturbing but at the same time, it makes the movie very effective! I remember this getting a lot of praise, back in the day, but nowadays, more people seem to hate it, 20 years later and I don't know why? Again, the movie is no "Citizen Kane" or better yet, "Back To The Future", but it's a reminder that they don't make movies like this, anymore. A lot of people seem to prefer the Director's Cut version, but I disagree. It makes the movie a lot worse. The awful prison rape scene is digusting and tastless and the whole "Look Who's Talking" CGI ending where Evan goes back in time to strangle himself as a fetus was cartoonishly bad and too tragic and plus I'm a Christian and don't believe nor codone the idea of suicide! The theatrical version is so much better. The ending isn't as embarrassingly bad and at least Evan is still alive, at the end. The only problem I have with the film and this isn't a writing problem but more to do with how disturbing a character is written: it's Tommy. The brother of Kayleigh. He's a borderline sociopath. He goes beyond the typical "Stephen King bully" cliche and is just a downright unpleasant character in general! Yes, I understand his character is supposed to be written like that, but still. Oh, and don't even get me started on the pedophile dad. He's just as bad as his son! For those who don't know, he was played by the actor who originally going to play Marty in Back To The Future. Getting back to Tommy, one funny part I actually liked is when they're at the theater watching a movie and he makes some MST3K style commentary where he insults an obese character from the movie (They were seeing Seven, and this part of the movie took place in 1995) and then just moments later, we later see him going all "Alex from A Clockwork Orange" on this teen when he sees Evan kissing his sister and it's quite brutal! However, the character crosses the line for me when he kills Evan's dog by setting it on fire and proceeds to beat Evan with a baseball bat, all because he kissed his sister. Literally, the 3rd movie does the same thing as this, except the gender role is swapped around and we have some yandere character killing all the women her brother is either flirting with or dating. Although I found Tommy way more disturbing than Jenna from 3. At least there have been characters like Jenna in a lot of anime where anyone who acts like Tommy are usually from Stephen King's stories.

Anyways, I really think TBE doesn't deserve that much hate. Sure, it's a very messy, plothole ridden sci-fi thriller about time travel, but it's a lot better than most modern time travel movies, including that mediocre mess, known as The Adam Project! Donnie Darko does somewhat deserve its status as a "masterpiece" but unfortunately it falls a little short, despite having all the right ingredients of being a wonderful movie. The Butterfly Effect, on the other hand has none of the wrong elements of being a "truly awful" movie, despite it's many flaws.