The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations

In this direct-to-DVD installment of the Butterfly franchise, Sam is a psychic detective for Detroit PD, who has a time travel ability vaguely similar to that of Evan from the first film.  This time, though, he has a knowing sister and friend/professor who help him with his jumps, so long as he sticks to the code and never affects his own past.  But when the sister of his murdered first girlfriend needs his help to prove the innocence of the man sitting on death row for the crime, his jumps starts to unravel his life.  Each time the death count grows, and the police think he's the murderer.

Unfortunately the true criminal is apparent half an hour into the film, what with the no-so-subtle repeated dialog about his past choices.  Unlike in the first film with Evan, though, this time Sam has a solution that can put everything right...

The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations
2009, 89 minutes, directed by Seth Grossman

The Butterfly Effect

My review of this is mostly spoilers.  Sorry.

I prefer films with happy endings.  Shallow, I know, but I don't watch a movie so I can make some haughty film critic pronunciation on its worthiness in the cinematic arts.  I want to lose myself in another world for a little while, to have an opportunity to see what it's like to be someone else.  Such sessions end better if they end well.

So why am I not satisfied with this one?  Ostensibly it ends as well as it could.  Everyone's happy.  Sort of.  Maybe the guy who gets the girl in the last scene shouldn't be an extra?

I watched the director's cut.  I would have enjoyed another hour of film if they could have kept the roller coaster going long enough for him to find a better solution.

The Butterfly Effect
2004, 120 minutes (director's cut), directed by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber