Did anybody think the theatrical version of Donnie Darko was better than the directors cut? I did. The changes in the directors cut made it seem like an entirely different movie. In the theatrical version it seemed that Donnie was just a schizophrenic imagining frank the bunny and when he killed human frank he had finally gone insane, shown by the black cloud things swallowing his house. The directors cut changed it so that frank was some time travelling being from the future and donnie was saving the universe by sending the engine back to kill himself. I just think the original premise was much more interesting. What are your opinions?
Not sure which one I have seen...but I'm pretty sure it was the one that made the point about time traveling and all that...Don't they both have those ideas in them? I remember people discussing the movie on IMDb forums and everybody was talking about the time traveling thing and how it all worked...not too much about mental illness, still a possibility though.
I fell in love with the theatre cut first so I thought the director's cut was terrible after watching it. Looking back on my lj from my "Donnie Darko phase" the notes I made about my disappointments on the D.C. were the following: 1) Song changes. What the hell was with that? The first song was some shitty song instead of "Killing Moon" by Echo and the Bunnymen. The Killing Moon fit so well. It set the mood and fit with the scenery. The new song sucked and didn't fit. "Under the Milkyway" played in the car rather than after Donnie and Gretchen make-out was absurd. I mean really. Other scenes where the music (or lack thereof) bothered me where the first time he sees the liquid spears, the second time at the party where he sees the liquid spears, and finally the scene where Donnie is at the Carpathian Ridge Mountains at the end of the tangent world. 2) Scene changes. The ones that I can recall right now that really bothered me were the movie scene and coming to the end/the end of the tangent world scene. I can't believe that they didn't show the picture of the house on the movie screen after Frank shows Donnie the portal. He just says burn it. What nonsense is that? The coming to the end and the end of the tangent world scene just sucked. I enjoyed the recap and piecing together of certain important quotes during the movie in the original. There was none in this one. I at least expected the count-down to be recited or Gretchen's "how beautiful the world can be" quote when Donnie stares at her body in the car. It wasn't there... 3) Missing lines. The one that blew me away was the fact that Frank's friend only says one line rather than doing the slight freaking out thing he does. ("Frank?...You killed her Frank!") It added to suspense and drama, but no. They only had him say one word, "Frank," if I remember correctly. 4) The grid thingy that often accompanied the eye. What was with that?
