User Reviews

I went into Butterfly Effect: Revelation with very low expectations, especially after the mediocre sequel. But it is a surprisingly well-plotted and thrilling puzzle of a movie that has it share of great moments, but the twist can be guessed by most and it changes up the rules of the first two.

We follow Sam who lives whose girlfriend Rebecca was murdered 5 years ago. Like the previous movies, he has the ability to travel back in time to key moments to gain some new information and sometimes even alter the past. He uses this to help the FBI catch killers beforehand. Only this time, the movie adds a few new elements: 1)Sam can travel back to ANY moment in the past, whether he was present there when it originally happened or not. 2) He doesn't need to use journals/pictures to travel back and can do so at his will anytime. 3) A few more but they are spoiler territory.

But once he gets the information that the killer who is behind bars for Rebecca's murder is wrongly convicted, he decides to break his own rule of not altering his own past to travel back to the night of the murder, but through a mistake creates a serial killer for the world.

Unlike the second movie which had a large amount of plot holes and ridiculous decisions by the protagonist, this one is for the most part well-plotted, presented as a puzzle piece instead of a traditional thriller, and creates suspense by adding the element of guessing the killer's identity. It has a lot of thrilling moments, particularly in the last half hour. Unfortunately, the twist the movie tries to pull is predictable in the movie if you are paying attention. Although that doesn't mar the experience, it ruins the element of surprise. Also, some fans of the original may not like the changes to the rules of the first. The actor's did a surprisingly good part in the movie. The dialogue was good, although the little attempts at humor failed more than worked.

Overall, this is a recommended thriller, especially if you are a fan of the original. It tries to do something different by adding the element of a serial killer into the mix and gives the protagonist much more stake in the movie rather than just saving the life of a loved one. If only it wasn't for the predictable twist, my rating would be higher.

After discovering that he has the ability to travel back and forth through time, Sam Reed becomes a law-enforcement affiliate who aids the police by using his skills to identify killers. There's one golden rule of his practice: whether on purpose or by accident, don't alter, interfere, or interact with anyone, as the results could change the future forever. Reed breaks that rule in an attempt to help his murdered girlfriend's sister find the perpetrator. But with each attempt to fix what he's altered, he only finds himself in a deeper mess.

Who would've known a direct-to-DVD sequel would rise another direct-to-DVD sequel? After all, these second-rate casts and second-rate scripts surely don't attract people into watching these movies...or do they? This third film in the Butterfly Effect franchise may not be as bad as you think, which is both encouraging and unfortunate, I suppose. The plot in here is actually good because it's different from the first two. The first film was a good movie by itself. The second was just like the first but on a much, much (much) smaller scale.

However, the third is quite different. In fact, unlike the first two films, there aren't many consequences here. The protagonist's life doesn't really change so much which is great, in my opinion, because there's no more repeat. The story, however, is more like a serial killer/Saw-type movie with very gruesome death scenes, one very random and quite graphic sex scene, and one jaw-dropping scene in the end that matches the second movie's "gay blow job" scene. There's also a very contrived twist ending that doesn't really blow your minds away because it's too contrived and trite like many twist endings that tries too hard to surprise people.

But other than that, the movie is interesting enough, on a very small level. The girls get all the eye candy they want from lead Chris Carmack while the guys get all the guts and gore in the death scenes. I also liked the end...very much, which is quite surprising (I'm not talking about the twist ending). For a direct-to-DVD threequal, the film is surprisingly decent, but that's not saying much because our expectations are just too low. The performances were decent and the end leaves you very satisfied, unlike the depressing ending from the first movie. If you're a fan of this series, go ahead and watch it. If not, don't bother wasting your time in a second-rate movie.

This movie was entertaining and sometimes kept me on the edge of my seat, but I must admit, only a day after watching it, it's hard to remember this movie. So I believe that in a week I will forget that I have ever seen it.

The plot was overall good, but the ending was so predictable due to the lack of characters and it was easy to choose the killer: it was either the guy himself or his sister. And if you guessed that it was the sister, you knew how the movie would end. Also, the last scene of the movie was totally unnecessary.

I liked the acting - I can't remember a single actor/actress who did a bad job.

Watch it if you like the idea of jumping in time and you expect 90 min of decent entertainment.

I must say this movie had low low expectations from me when the movie started but surprise to me it wasn't all that bad....unlike the 2nd film of this series which the only thing that kept me going was Erica Durance beauty. However the movie failed to set up a few key people in the film where they came from, how they met and exactly how they fit into the story so I felt like I kinda lost the emotional attachment to certain characters. As for the story it-self not terrible... a few people on here think its better thought out then the first but I disagree. I felt like with the first one I got better attached emotionally to the characters and the out come of their fates as with this one the third one I didn't really care who died or who lived at the end either way was fine for me. Anyway if it was my call just wait til its on t.v someday and hopefully they wont make a fourth one to the series.

One of this years 8 Films to Die For concerns a young man who can jump back through time, a gift he uses to try and help people. Unfortunately when he tries to help unravel his past things often get radically changed in ways he never intended. Good little thriller is something you'll want to see once since once you get to the end there really isn't a point. I liked that there is a bit of intelligence involved with the film. the dialog is smart and the reasoning behind what happens is reasonably well thought out. If there is a problem its that the central story isn't as good as the things its wrapped in. The story of our hero trying to unravel a murder and finding more occurring as result just doesn't hold up as solidly as everything else. If I could watch the side bits again with out dealing with the central story I'd gladly watch this again, right now I don't see the need. As it stands now this is a good little thriller that should have been better. Worth a look.

This is one of the worst movies ever made and is pretty much a sequel to the failure of The Butterfly Effect 2.

The characters have no background and the plot sucks. I couldn't figure out who the hell all these women were or even follow their names. So many characters and you don't know anything about them. It's like they said during the whole production that they'll explain everything in the sister scene. And that's where you get all the information, but that's just too little too late. All the great elements from the first movie are gone and now this guy is a time machine in a bath full of ice - that's just stupid!

The plot has some many holes in it that I got lost every time he jumped. Who the hell is Paco? Why is Sam suddenly renting a bed from him? If Sam said that he saved his sister and that caused the death of his parents then why at the end his parents get out of the house while he's killing the sister instead of saving her like he should have done in the first place? And who is that Guldburg guy? What's he got to do with Sam?

To summarize, if you get to see that movie on TV some day then I'm really sorry you've wasted 90 minutes of your life but at least didn't pay to see it (or so I hope).

If people can get sued for downloading (stealing) movies then this movie is a chance to sue the movie industry for stealing our money!

Yup,this was far better than the second one.Well,this sequel thing is a tricky business,and the second butterfly effect movie was an example of that.they missed the trick there and the movie was a big flop.But this time they ALMOST got it right.It wasn't a perfect movie,wasn't better than the first one but still was worth spending time watching it.Pros and cons,well,as we know every science fiction movie has a lot of both.I personally always evaluate the movie by analyzing its pros and cons.This time,the pros were more than the cons.This movie had a good plot with a teasing sense of suspense that keeps the audience guessing.The biggest con was the ending,they try to show us that the kid(Jenna)was the bad person but they leave it unexplained and this movie would have had a better ending without this Jenna's second coming.All in all,this is definitely a good one,cheers mates.

The Butterfly Effect 3 is nowhere near as good as the outstanding original or even the solid direct to video sequel, but it certainly manages to hold it's own, and kept my interest throughout. The movie manages to give us quite the intense going back in time scenes, with Sam trying to fix everything, and not only that it constantly keeps you guessing on who the killer truly is, I even kept thinking it actually would be Sam. For a DTV movie, they did really well with what they could for the budget, and there is a couple of really nasty scenes that not only managed to shock me, but impress me highly as well. Chris Carmack makes for a decent lead who we can somewhat sympathize with, so that was good. The ending has a really great twist, that I honestly didn't see coming, and I usually always guess these kinda endings, but it did a good job at surprising me. It's nothing outstanding, or even anything i'll ever watch again, but for what it was I got a decent amount of thrills from it, and that's really all I can ask for.

Performances. Chris Carmack makes for an OK lead. He's nothing brilliant, but he holds his own most of the time, and I was able to root for him on many occasions. Rachel Miner does very well as the Sister Jenna. She's unpredictable and I dug her.

Bottom line. Buttefly Effect 3 is a fairly entertaining time waster that I liked. I love time travel and anything to do with it, so perhaps that's why I dug it so much, I don't really know. Still give it a whirl on a cold rainy night, it'll do the job.

6/10

To say that expectations are low for the third installment of a franchise that was fairly woeful to begin with is a pretty massive understatement. The original "Butterfly Effect" starring Aston Kutcher was more a vaguely interesting concept masquerading as a feature film than a fully-realized story. Butterfly Effect 2 is an inept pile of cinematic garbage that was only made because the same German audiences that go apeshit for David Hasselhoff also think that Butterfly Effect is the "Citizen Kane" of Aston Kutcher time-travel movies.

And, lastly, "Butterfly Effect: Revelation", the anchor of Horrorfest's 8 Films to Die For festival, has had such a lackluster marketing plan that it was nearly impossible to find out when and where it was playing until a few days before it opened.

So as the lights dimmed at the 10:00 showing of "Revelation" at Mann's Beverly Center Cinema, the odds were that it was going to be a long night.

But then a funny thing happened. The movie started and it was actually pretty...good. Okay- it was clearly made on a pretty small budget and there were some of the edges were a little rough, but generally this was a pleasant, if not elevated, genre movie with some good scares, at least one standout performance and an interesting take on a series that was worn out before it began.

Unlike its predecessors, the most surprising thing about "Revelation" is that it actually has a story and fully-realized characters.

A disturbing cold open murder in a Detroit park sets a gloomy tone and introduces us to Sam Reed (Chris Carmack) who callously watches the murder take place from a safe distance.

We soon learn that Sam possesses the power to jump back anywhere in time in his own personal past. Unlike the protagonists of the previous two Butterfly Effects, Sam uses this power not to change the circumstances of his own life but for a tidy paycheck from helping Detroit police to solve cold case murders.

This by itself earns the film, penned by up and coming screenwriter Holly Brix and directed by equally rising filmmaker Seth Grossman, a gold star over the previous efforts in the franchise.

The Kutcher version at least had novelty going for it even if it was missing a story but the second film is simply a remake of the first with an unknown cast and director.

Brix's script, while not perfect, is miles ahead of its predecessors in terms of creating a film that is more plot than gimmick. Grossman's direction is interesting as well but flawed. Some very nice moments in the film are undercut with overlong scenes and sloppy editing. Several times in the movie I caught myself mumbling the word "cut" to myself with increasing urgency. Good lines of dialogue that should have ended the scene were lost in unnecessary further expository jibber jabbering by the actors.

As the film goes on we're introduced to Sam's sister (Rachel Miner) who is both his caretaker when he is having his time traveling out of body experiences and his ward as an emotionally fragile, sardonic shut-in. Miner's performance nails a character really well and when she's on screen the movie really comes to life. Miner, best known for her relationship to the Home Alone kid, shines in this movie to the extent that she overshadows Carmack's heavy-handed take on his character. This appears to be a problem with the direction or casting as the acting is frequently uneven but Miner proves that all of the performances could have been better. Although spotty, Carnack manages to pump out a few scenes that reach an authentic emotional quality.

Sam soon learns that someone else is jumping into a mutual past and changing events faster than he can. Soon he is a suspect in the murders that he formerly helped solve and the real killer is closing in on him.

The killer's identity is well concealed until it is very close to being revealed at which point it seems the filmmakers had run out of red herrings to use as distractions.

Overall, however, "Revelation" is a pleasant surprise against such radically low expectations and, while it is not "Citizen Kane" it is an entertaining genre movie with some great writing, decent direction and an inspiring performance from Miner.