"The Butterfly Effect 2"

Nick Lively
Erica Durance
Dustin Milligan
Gina Holden
David Lewis
Andrew Airlie

R           92min           2006

“The Butterfly Effect 2”, is the same as the first movie. This time around Eric Lively plays Nick who a year after he loses the woman he loves, played by Erica Durance, of Smallville fame, his best friend and his girlfriend in a car wreck is left in a dead end job and headaches from the crash. When he realizes that he can look at a photo and go into the past he starts to change his life for personal gain.

The sequel just doesn’t work as well as the first. With such a great premise, you wouldn’t think that it could go wrong. The demise of this film sits squarely on the backs of NEW LINE CINEMA. This sequel is far inferior to the first but superior in the fact that the studio only gave the filmmaker 20 days to shoot this film. No film that relies heavily on the story can be cohesively filmed in twenty days. I don’t think any decent film can be shot in less than forty days, as always there are exceptions to the rule.

The entire conflict in contained a two-year period. The lack of time to film plagues it and it shows in the story told. In one instance Nick goes back one year and lands a promotion that causes him to become an asshole over night with no provocation or explanations. There is no way someone becomes an asshole that quick.

There are plot holes big enough to fit a hump back whale through. When Nick has a drastic change in his life he doesn’t remember the year as clearly as Evan did in the first. Several major events in his life that he should remember he doesn’t. There was some scene that did not play well in the film and it really didn’t move the plot along.

Next time a different approach should be taken. Maybe it should be a girl and take more than 20 days to film it. From these two films we learned that its genetic and the only way to get a grip on “the butterfly effect” is to commit suicide or give up trying to control everything. Something that would be interesting to see handled by a woman.

I not saying you will like it, but if seen enough of the The Butterfly Effect and are looking for a new take on it’s premise, give it shot.

I give it 2/5 Gs.