Butterfly Effect: Revelations (Review)

The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations

The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations (2009)

Directed by Seth Grossman

On my list of movies to see for the After Dark Horrorfest III: 2009, this movie ranked dead last on movies I wanted to see.

I never saw the original or its sequel and though I like time travel stories, I just couldn't see myself watching Ashton Kutcher in something he would ultimately fuck up.

But Revelations is Kutcher free so I figured its now safe to enter the water.

So seeing this 3rd installment is a complete shocker as its actually a tolerable, mediocre piece of filmmaking. It's isn't completely horrible and it's not critic proof brilliant. It's just average. And being average for an After Dark movie is like climbing Mount Everest.

You made it to the top!

Boring Plot-O-Matic

Sam Reed can travel back in time, and makes his living helping to identify killers to the police. The problem is that if changes anything, deliberately or accidentally, the "butterfly effect" causes history to change. When he returns to the present, things are often completely different and he has no clear memory of what happened in his new history.

His troubles begin when he "breaks the rules" by trying to help the sister of his murdered girlfriend find out who the murderer was, and ends up changing his own history. Every attempt he makes to fix the problems that occur create even worse problems, and each trip scrambles his memory even further and puts him in an even worse situation than before.

Can he solve the mystery before he loses his mind?

Awesome Review-O-Matic

I gotta admit, there's an actual ample amount of splatter and nudity in this flick which totally caught me off guard. So as the movie started off with some dude bashing a woman's head in, I was like WTF.

Sam (Chris Carmack) and Jenna (Rachel Miner, girl from Californication, Bully) are siblings and have a nice, cozy family dynamic. Seems Sam use his time travel skills to help the police solve cases so he can support his deadbeat sister. Oddly enough, the movie takes place in Detroit.

Really Detroit? White people live in Detroit? From the opening montages of some brothas playing basketball and some rundown houses, are we really suppose to believe this suburban white kid and his semi hot blonde sister live in the projects?

Who was the location producer on this? Kidding aside, there was even one scene where Sam is walking down the street and some brothas eyeing him like WTF you doing in this neighborhood?
I really think they had no idea they were filming a movie.

Anyway back to the flick, Sam loads up a bathtub full of ice and puts on some electrodes to go all Flux Capacitor.

However as his fat Doc Brown friend reminds him he has to abide by the BIG RULES which are:

1.) Never jump to into aspects of your life (personal and family) and try to change anything
2.) ONLY observe and report

But it wouldn't be much of a movie if good ole Sam abided by the rules right?

Seems Sam went back in time and saved his sister from a burning house but the laws of physics and shit say you can't do that unless you pay the reaper which of course happens as instead of his sister dying his parents die.

Later, a blast from his old cases comes in as a friend of Sam's old GF who was murdered tells Sam to investigate her case. Seems the guy who supposedly did it is on Death Row and possibly innocent.

I know what your thinking. Everytime I say Sam goes back in time your thinking Quantum Leap right? Shit people, I was thinking the same thing to. I was waiting for Sam to say: "Al, ask Ziggy what I'm here to change?" Boom! Blue light. And Sam's in a girl's body.

So the odd part of Sam's time travel is he goes back in time in his body. So when he jumps back to a point in time when he was a kid (say around the 1970s) he's in the body of of a 8 year old him.

Soon Sam is jumping in to try to save his ex. But that fucks up the timeline and creates a Pontiac serial killer. Sam leaps back and forward in time investigating whose doing the killing and each time changes the future.

So our killer is going all serial killing people with an arsenal of machinery. Chainsaws, dice and slice, etc. Seems like our time traveler just can't figure it out until it's explained to him.

Suffice it to say, you can figure out whose the Big Bad killer 30 minutes in. The ending is little bit cliched, though a nice evil touch is added at the end.

I don't want to ruin or add any spoilers so you know, I won't.

Even our killer has fun explaining the entire craziness of all the slayings by saying:

"This is so Scooby-Doo, isn't it? I would've gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling kids."

Butterfly Effect: Revelation is not a perfect movie, but it's a competent one. It doesn't go too far off its own logic and it moves quicky for its 90 minutes. Each of the characters have their own little job to push Sammy along to find the truth. His fat physics professor friend, the inept detectives and the big breasted waitress who he boinks all contribute to his timeline life.

Seems people like the 1st one so maybe, just maybe I'll go see that one. But I mean it has the Kutcher. But it does have the hotness that is Amy Smart. Hmmmm. Do I risk watching Ashton the douche to see a hot blonde? Tough choice.

Maybe if future me went back in time to tell me what I should do, this wouldn't be a tough choice. You hear me future me? What do I do?

Gore-ipedia

Bashed head trauma
Sliced finger trauma
Foot trauma
Sliced torso trauma
Sliced neck trauma

Nude-ipedia

Hot blonde waitress boobies (in multiple positions!)

WTF moment

The killer explaining everything (motive, involvement, plot, etc) to our man Sam

The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis

I gotta admit, this one surprised me. I didn't know I'd actually find this "EH" instead of "ARGH".
If you like time travel or the other Butterfly Effect movies I guess you can watch this one.

If you ever go back in time, tell the After Dark commitee to stop making movies. Please.

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Categories: after dark horrorfest 2009, after dark horrorfest 2009 reviews, after dark horrorfest boxset, butterfly effect, butterfly effect revelation, butterfly effect revelation review, time travel