Butterfly Effect 2 [DVD]

If you are reading this then I will assume you know the general time travelling story from the first film.

The original Butterfly effect was a thought provoking and very entertaining film. Its lead, Ashton Kutcher, played a character who you could easily warm to and each time he altered his past (and therefore everyone elses as well) there was genuine shock and surprise each time you saw the results of his actions. Sadly the sequel has lost any charm the original had and has made a very interesting concept totally boring.

The lead character (Nick) can now travel in time looking at photos, rather than reading this time. This in itself is too easy. We all have old photos, but how many of us have old letters or diaries from our childhood like were used in the original? Whenever Nick changes the past/future there are never any moments when we are truly shocked with the changes to his life which happen. The worst it gets is that he splits up with his girlfriend. Most of us have been there before and know that however upsetting it is at the time, we get over it and it rarely destroys our life. Contrast this with the first movie where Ashton Kutcher loses his arms! This is something life changing and was a surprise you did not see coming and was shocking.

The acting is appalling from all involved. There is no chemistry between the lead and his girlfriend. There are times when the film looks like becoming a soft porn movie but even this is poorly executed. Rather then appearing erotic they are so choreographed I was expecting them to start dancing at any moment. The film plods along with all the pace and excitement of a tortoise race and the only emotion you feel at the end is relief, relief that it is all over. I only wish I had taken a photo of myself before I started watching so I could now try and go back in time and avoid watching it all together.

2004's "The Butterfly Effect" was a movie that I praised highly. Starring Ashton Kutcher and several other talented young actors, the movie was original and inspired for all it's seeming repetetiveness. Brilliantly acted and brilliantly directed, it perhaps dragged out a little in its entirety but was an altogether enjoyable motion picture experience. Three years later comes the unnecessary sequel "The Butterfly Effect 2". It may seem cynical, but the idea of a sequel to the 2004 original didn't exactly fill me with great expectations and hope for an equally intense viewing experience. Surely it couldn't live up to its predecessor and surely it's repetetiveness would serve only as a detractor rather than as an addition in overall quality -- something it surprisingly did in the first movie. What's my opinion on the movie afterwards then? "The Butterfly Effect 2" brings nothing new to the table and borrows little but the most gimmicky plot elements from the movie that it proports to be a sequel of. There is no connection between the two. The first was a provocative, entertaining thriller exploring the theory of time travel via memory. The second is a derivative, tasteless piece of film that can only hope in its wildest dreams for anywhere near the same amount of quality as its predecessor.

This supposed sequel abandons the character of Evan Treborn and instead follows a one-dimensional, uninteresting character known as Nick Larson (Eric Lively), a man experiencing similar phenomenon to Treborn. He discovers that he can go back and alter his past to create himself better alternative realities in the present day by remembering stressful or important times in his life via photographs taken during their specific times. So he seeks to rescue the lives of his friends in a car accident in the beginning. Throughout the film he alters several other events throughout his life too, in the hope that he'll allow himself the best possible reality. he isn't nearly as heartfelt and moral as Treborn of the first film. His alterations are decidedly less selfless than Treborn's and are damn right trivial in comparison with the original's. He seeks to alter times in his life when things were going well so as to ensure his own success, not seeking to change anything traumatic with the exception of the car crash.

Eric Lively does a poor job with suitably poor scripting to back him up. Giving a flat, monotonous performance as Nick Larson his character becomes virtually impossible to like. There's little to like about the character or the actor portraying him. He alters things when he really doesn't need to, another pointless aspect of a pointless movie. Lending something good to proceedings is Erica Durance, one of very few that actually throw themselves into this film. Why she would throw herself into this is beyond me though. No matter how good she is, Durance isn't featured enough to save this movie from being sub-standard.

With a detestable main character at its core, the viewer never feels sorry for Nick whenever he messes things up as a result of his own selfish choices. This isn't with regards to the time-travelling but with the decisions he makes in between. He's smug, selfish and reckless. Not the qualities of a protagonist whatsoever, and such horrid characterisation supresses various others throughout the film.

"The Butterfly Effect 2" doesn't deliver anything that fans of the original cult hit might want and expect. Instead it clunkily goes about telling a story with one-dimensional characters, storyline twists that never come anywhere near the ingenuity of those in "The Butterfly Effect" and countless other detriments and flaws. It's not all bad though. With a running-time of around ninety minutes it comes to a close mercifully quick.

Had "The Butterfly Effect 2" not been dreamed up in the first place than we'd be spared such a derivative mess. Now all I can do is warn you against it. If only we could travel through time and stop it, huh? Avoid.

I really liked the first film. It was a bit of an original concept. I was skeptical when I stumbled across Butterfly Effect 2 thinking it must be bad if I didn't know there was a second film. However, TV was poor that night so decided to chuck it on and give it a go. I am pleased I did as I think it was another clever film.I was expecting it to follow on from the first film but quickly realised it was totally seperate ( not just different actors playing the same characters from the first, as I though t it was going to be) I liked how getting and having 'everything' is not as easy as it seems, considering this time the lead role has so much more ability to control their future, compared to the original film. It had some good little twists, good acting ( I didn't think the acting was any worse than most films, to be honest) and overall I liked the storyline too. I was surprised to see it has such poor reviews. Now I've just discovered there's a third one.......