Butterfly Effect, The- I & II

Directors: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber
Year: 2004
Cast: Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart.
Rating: *** (out of ****)

There are movies when you are supposed to be in a confused state when you are done watching them. As if it was shown that way and was perfectly intended. I believe The Butterfly Effect lies in that category. Having travelled through all the versions of virtual reality of Evan, I felt disoriented. A feeling of discomfort crept in my mind. The same thing I experienced while watching Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes) for the first time.

But my question is, do you have to be a victim of dementia to be experience this feel this desperate need to change things you deeply regret ? We all do that sometime or the other. The director duo have made a fine movie nonetheless. A well written, finely paced, a bit too flashy but still a true movie. I wish they had done it with more subtlety.

Director: John R. Leonetti
Year: 2006
Cast: Eric Lively, Erica Durance.
Rating: ** (out of ****)

A sequel is and should be usually made when you have something to tell, an extension of the original, a step further. Not with a trifle idea of making money riding on the popularity of the first one. Hollywood has this tendency to go about making sequels with the sole commercial purpose (Remember Saw, I Know What You Did Last Summer). This one here is, I believe, both. It's like you have a tested formula, you just replace the characters with new one in a different setting. It was a diary in the first and here, they are photos. Story seems like an afterthought.

The 'story' is necessarily the same as The Butterfly Effect (of course with more sex and flash-editing) and the climax heavily influenced by the recent If Only. As for the film, I still stand by what I thought about The Butterfly Effect ( There are movies when you are supposed to be in a confused state when you are done watching them). Still I would recommend it to those who like thrillers. It'll be a good bet for them, only for them.