The most amazing movie of all time has been widely agreed upon: Donnie Darko. Is the long awaited sequel going to live up to it's successor?
What made Donnie Darko so great was that the movie worked on so many different levels. That is to say, 500 different people could watch the movie, and take 500 completely different messages from it.
The general consensus for the viewers of the sequel, S. Darko was confusion. Those who aren't die hard Donnie Darko fans are going to have trouble following the sequence of events in this movie.
It did take a few times for me and I'm sure others to fully grasp the concept of Donnie Darko, so maybe in time we'll see more understanding from the fans as they piece this movie together. That's always fun, to exercise your brain while watching an entertaining movie; so that's a plus.
A great thing about Donnie Darko was the acting. I thought that it worked out extremely well to cast two siblings in Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, as brothers and sisters in the movie. It all came out so natural, from the dinner confrontation in the beginning of the movie, to the kiss he affectionately lays on her forehead before he ventures off to save the world in the end of the movie.
The minor characters, from the creepy Jim Cunningham to the bullies, they bring such life to the town of Middlesex.
Unfortunately, the same can't be said of its successor. The creepy little town in Utah was just not as brought to life as Middlesex, there just wasn't that feeling that you were actually part of the town. The story picks up seven years later when little sister, Samantha Darko and her best friend Corey are now 18, on a roadtrip to Los Angeles when they are plagued by bizarre visions.
One disappointment for me, was I was hoping a feeling of nostalgia that never hit me. There just wasn't enough magic borrowed from the first movie to strike that cord. For example Frank the Bunny was completely different, they may have used the same actor for Sam, but you can't really tell because so much time has passed, it only mentions the rest of the Darko family once, none of them are actually in the movie.
On a happier note, I was also inclined to watch Donnie Darko again, and I left with that same great feeling I always do after I watch that movie. It just never gets old, it's a timeless movie.
Another thing that made Donnie Darko so great was the story, the legend, the mythology behind the movie. Seemingly made up, it's a very interesting phenomenon that Donnie goes through.
The Sequel does a great job in staying to the exact Donnie Darko mythology, but therein also lies the problem in that it doesn't bring anything new or exciting, it's just another occurrence of the same phenomenon, that happens to include Donnie Darko's sister.
A reinterpretation as to what would happen if this phenomenon were to occur. It's just not as exciting the second time around, not as good of acting, not as good of a story, and it just loses the feel of originality, the breath of fresh air that was Donnie Darko.
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