Director's cut made me lose respect for the film itself.

Rating: Null/10 (19 January 2007)

I recently decided to introduce Donnie Darko to a couple of friends of mine, but the only available copy the movie store had was the director's cut. Having not seen it, I immediately assumed that it would be better than the theatrical version and would be great for first time viewers. I was wrong. Dead wrong. Not only did the director's cut pretty much scare away a crowd of about 15 first time viewers with its off-beat pacing and obnoxious super-imposed editing sequences, but it also scared away a long time Donnie darko fan. Many of the beautiful transitions and music sequences which were so crucial to the delivery and near aesthetic perfection in the theatrical version were gone. What was left instead was a less familiar Donnie Darko with repetitively clichéd editing techniques, unfamiliarly disjointed music sequences, and abrasively disproportional pacing that really took away the meaning that film once held for me. Now that I've seen what the director originally intended for the film to look like, I don't know if I'll ever be able to appreciate it the same way again.