Director dumbs down Donnie Darko

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2006)

As good as the movie is, the open-endedness left more to the imagination, which the director's cut attempts to over-elaborately explain. I understand that the director is probably just trying to respond to comments about how hard it was to understand, but his response shouldn't have been to dumb down the movie. I loved it exactly the way it was. For example, in the scene where Donnie puts a hatchet through the bronze mongrel, the original leaves the audience in a state of awe. The Director's cut, on the other hand attempts to explain it with a quick except from a text book which states that those who go back in time are given super-human strength. It completely kills the moment. Watch the original if you have a chance, if you don't then see this one.