Review of The Butterfly Effect 2 (2006) by Fwah S — 24 Oct 2009

So after watching the brilliant movie known as 'The Butterfly effect' so that I could review it hear on Flixster, I made the mistake of watching 'The Butterfly Effect 2'.

Believe it or not, there is a lot to say about this movie, however, it is not all good.

In a cheap attempt to make a sequel to a movie that didn't need one, 'The Butterfly Effect 2' attempts to tell the story of Nick, who after a being involved in a car accident that kills his long term girlfriend, and two of his closest friends, discovers that he can go back in time by vacantly staring at photographs of past events.

Before I watched this movie, I already knew that I shouldn't have high expectations. And I was right.

The opening scene of the movie introduces us to the main characters, who as well as being under developed, and stereotypical, are also unbelievable, but I think that is due to the acting.

Our main character, Nick, who is played by Eric Lively, just feels so empty as a charcater. At the beginning of the movie, after his character discovers that he is the only survivor of the car crash, puts on a good performance as the depressed boyfriend who would do anything to have her back. However, as the movie progresses, His character just becomes contradicting.

Don't get me wrong, there are some nice touches in this movie, but those little things do not make up for the fact that a lot of events in the movie are unexplained. For example, in the first movie it was explained to us very simply that Evan could travel back in time to points where he had memory blackouts. It was explained, and in a fictional world, in makes sense. But in this movie, Nick doesn't suffer from memory blackouts at a young age. In fact, he doesn't really suffer from anything more than the occasional migraine after the accident, and just before he travels back in time.

To be fair, this movie is a very poor effort of imitating the first movie. Unfortunately, it was money that drove the progression of this movie, and not creative passion.

The movie isn't bad enough to forever taint the first movie, even though Evans father, Jason Treborne, is mentioned briefly. In fact, it doesn't even do enough to justify it sharing the same name, or even being part of the franchise. Even though the story is not anywhere similar to the 'Final Destination' series, I felt that it had the same vibe and would fit in there a little better.

To be honest, I'm trying to find appealing things about this movie, but that is not as easy to do as you may think. Personally, Only watch it if you have an hour and a half of your life that you don't want back.