Review:
The Butterfly Effect 2

Bottom Line: It's just another bad movie sequel...

The Butterfly Effect 2, released 23 April 2007, is one of two sequels to the 2004 film "The Butterfly Effect".

Following the general idea of the first film, The Butterfly Effect 2 follows the life of a young man with a brain tumor that allows him to change the past by looking at photographs, however this is the only connection between the two films, as the characters from the original film appear to be deceased, or are simply not present at the time.

The film starts with a slow paced scene around a camp fire, which somehow reminds me of a similar bonfire scene in John R. Stevenson's "Scream Bloody Murder". The atmosphere is that of a generic slasher movie, and quite boring to watch. Due to a phone call from work that catches the character Nick off guard, the group of friends all decide to head back home early. The next scene consists of a car collision with a truck, much alike to the starting crash in "Final Destination 2". At this point, I couldn't help but wonder if this film was intentionally ripping off other horror movies for kicks.

As it went on, it rapidly continued to get worse and worse, until it reached the strongest scene in the film, the ending. It honestly seemed like the writers put all of their effort into the final conclusion, since the rest of the plot was 'everywhere' and not very interesting at all. If I had only gotten to see the final ten minutes, I would have definitely wanted to see the rest, but of course I know how bad of a mistake that would actually be, seeing as I have watched all 92 tedious minutes of it. Full of slow acting, inappropriate sex scenes,plot holes and iffy dialogue, The Butterfly Effect 2 is just another typical sequel.

Overall, the acting wasn't too bad. The role of Julie was played by Erica Durance (Lois Lane-Smallville, Amy-The bridge), although she didn't have much screen time, she was definitely one of the strongest actors on set. The special effects complimented the acting considerably well, and were a little more developed since the first film. It was the same basic concept: seizure inducing jitrering and blurring. The lead role of Nick was played by Eric Lively, he portrayed his character well I assume, unless his character was supposed to be the opposite of a jerk, in which case he failed. I couldn't sympathize with Nick at all, even though he had a tumor, even though his life was screwed up beyond redemption, even though he was clearly suffering, I found myself enjoying his pain. This was where the script lacked power. In the first film, I'm sure everyone was upset for Evan, especially at the end when he walked past Kayleigh and had to pretend that he had never met her, the second that the Oasis tune crept onto the scene, my emotional levels where uncontrollable. After all he'd been through, why couldn't it just work out? Everyone was hoping for a happy ending. To this day, I've never seen a movie that has haunted me like the original Butterfly Effect, even the following morning, I was still pretty upset. With Butterfly Effect 2 however, I found Nick's life to be a joke, I couldn't wait for him to die, and when the ending scene played, I didn't feel much pain. I was pretty much content with it. Amusement aside, the ending twist defiantly earns kudos points.