Talk about "Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut" here:
Review by: Breanne Derby
Plot Summary
"Donnie Darko" is the story of Donnie Darko, a troubled teenager who suffers from "daytime hallucinations" which may be the beginnings of a case of paranoid schizophrenia. He has a hallucination of a giant, evil-looking rabbit named Frank who encourages him to do all sorts of haphazard things, and predicts the end of the world.
The Theatrical Release
The theatrical release of "Donnie Darko" was an excellently made film, so needless to say, I was somewhat excited to see the director's cut. The theatrical release was wholly unlike any film I'd seen before, and it really instilled thought and made me wonder about life. The acting was fantastic, the plot was excellent and enticing, and it's just generally a good movie. I've seen it probably ten times, and I'm not tired of it yet.
Review
There were both things I liked in the director's cut, and things I was glad were not included in the theatrical release. One major benefit to the director's cut was that there were a few scenes that gave you more information about what the characters were thinking, and what their motives were. However, there were several sound-effects changes (one was a whole song being played, and another was tires squealing on a gravel road) that I did not like and I was very satisfied that they were not included in the theatrical release.
Personally, I liked the ending better in the director's cut, though it wasn’t much different. I felt that I had a better understanding of what was happening to Donnie because of a number of descriptive clips that were added throughout the film. I felt as though I "knew" him better, and I could relate to his problem on a better level, though I really don't think I can relate to it very much.
Throughout the director's cut, there was an effect that was only used a couple of times in the theatrical release, where the motion of the characters would slow down, as if time was moving slowly, and then their motion would speed up as if time were passing very quickly. This was a very neat feature that I wished would have been included.
There were some very cool computer effects when Donnie was about to do Frank's bidding that made me more aware that something big was about to happen. I thought that these might be helpful for really stupid people or people who haven't seen the movie a thousand times like I have, but I don't think they really are necessary, though it was a cool looking special effect, and it made the special effects that occur at the ending of the theatrical release not seem so isolated.
Conclusion
All in all, there were advantages and disadvantages to how the director's cut was changed, and there were some things that I think would have made the theatrical release easier to understand, but none of them were incredibly crucial to the plot. It is still just as good of a movie without having the benefits that the director's cut had, and it doesn't have the detriments. The director's cut and the theatrical release aren't tremendously different, and they both had parts that I liked better than the other. If it were up to me, there were parts of both that I would have kept and there would be a "critic’s cut" out there for people to watch and enjoy.
