The Butterfly Effect 2

While the original The Butterfly Effect resulted in a surprisingly decent film about the repercussions of meddling with the past, its ending didn’t scream for a sequel. Still, the film industry is always down for a quick cash grab, so for this direct to DVD sequel American Pie’s Eric Lively replaces the much better Ashton Kutcher as the unsuspecting time traveller. However, the egotistical attempts by Nick (Lively) to perfect his life are lame compared to the sacrificial attempts Evan (Kutcher) made in the first movie in order to make life better for the love of his life. Where The Butterfly Effect was a layered movie with texture and atmosphere, the sequel ends up as a simple, straightforward story that ignores the intriguing phenomenon of the blackouts that acted as the only moments Evan was able to travel back in. The attempts by the brains behind this travesty to recapture the shocking moments of Evan’s prison blowjob and loss of limbs fall far short as well, with Nick receiving a pathetic, gay wake-up blowjob. The audio commentary and "making of” featurette add nothing to the film aside from revealing how much the movie changed from script to final film. In a bid for legitimacy as a sequel, they do attempt to connect the second movie to the first with the conceit that time travel is a hereditary feat, discovered by Nick when his internet research turns up news files on Jason Treborn, Evan’s insane asylum-confined father. In fact, if The Butterfly Effect ever warranted another instalment it should have been as a prequel to Jason's life and how he found himself in an asylum. Perhaps the third film could also have the next time-travelling hero go back and prevent the second film from ever being green-lighted. Now that would be a movie to make.