Donnie Darko: The Directors Cut
“Donnie Darko.”
It’s one of those movies that people seem to love to death or loathe with passion. I’ve not found anyone who belonds somewhere in between those two statements. Odd that a movie like this would generate that kind of reaction. I fall closer to the “love to death” category, but it’s certainly not in my top ten of films, if I were to make such a list.
Saw the Director’s Cut version of the film last night at the rather ghetto Pacific Sherman Oaks 5 Theaters. Some of the extra scenes can be found on the DVD with lots of extra effects added onto this theatrical release. On the whole, I didn’t like it. It’s one of those cases where it’s good the director didn’t have all the money he wanted for the effects and was told to pull it back. Some of the additional text from the time travel book written by Grandma Death was interesting, but they simply explained too much of the movie, as if the director suddenly stopped trusting his audience to figure it out on their own. Plus, the transition effects and final moment when Donnie makes his great journey make it seem more like Donnie’s a computer instead of a human being on a strange journey. There are a number of moments when we’re sort of “inside” Donnie’s mind and it looked too much like the heads up display of an Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator.
It’s nice to see it up on the big screen again in a dark theater, but the much simpler and succinct original is much better than this reimagining or whatever you might call it.
