OK Lena....

i finaly watched Donny Darko the other day (actualy I went through it twice. The first time without the commentary, the second time with the commentary.)

Overall I liked it. But as far as it being suspensfull/scary...I never quite felt scared or jumped. Yes, Frank the satanic bunny's voice was well done, yes for the first half of the movie (up to the point where he starts reading Grandma Death's book) kept me wondering what was going on. Yes, plotwise it's definatly a standout from just about any movie within the past 10 years. But it didn't creap me out.


***SPOILER ALERT***

***SPOILER ALERT***

***FROM THIS POINT OUT I WILL BASICLAY GO OVER THE ENTIRE MOVE...FROM BEGINING TO END***

***DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE FILM***


I guess to me it was the ending that made me go...OK, that was kind of a cop out. I mean if the whole reason for him doing the things that he did were to go back in time and basicaly get crushed by a jet engine then what's the point?

Follow my logic:

1. Donald doesn't get killed by the jet engine. Donnie Lives.

Score one for Donnie

2. Donnie breaks a water main, resulting in him getting out of school, walking the pretty girl home, and then having one hot high school girl friend.

Score one for Donnie

3. Donnie sets fire to Patric Swayze's house, enabling the authorities to find out that he's running a kiddie porn ring.

Score two for Donnie, one for simply for setting FIRE to patric Swayze's house (I mean, come on..how can you hate a film with that) and two for getting a kiddie porn scumbag off the street.

4. By doing all of these things up to this point, Donnies folks go out of town, This enables all the neighborhood kids to party like it's 1989. And Thus Donnie to get it on with his girlfriend.

Score another one for Donnie

5. His sister gets to go on the Dance Team trip, and gets exposed on Star Search.

Donnie is a God among men.

So as I see it, Donnie in the tangent universe is batting 6 for 6. Now if I was Donnie (or Frank) I'ld just say..."OK, this is so much better then getting KILLED by a stupid jet engine that get's sucked through a time warp.

And this is where I start to lose faith in the ending...

You see, if it wasn't for Franks constant nagging, Frank would never have been KILLED in the first place. Now one could say that Frank HAD to die, otherwise Donnie wouldn't have been able to get out of the house in the first place...which is a valad point. But if we are working backwards through time. (Which we are...he lays a trap for himself BACKWARDS through time without realizing that he does it.) I dont understand why HE couldn't just make certain that the GIRLFRIEND that he set HIMSELF up with in order to KILL FRANK, couldn't have just been pulled out of the street by DONNIE, and then he could have just make certain that FRANK HAD THE FRIGGIN GUN, and had him commit suicide by running over the old hag. See, then Donnie is still the man, all the good things have happened to the good people, and Donnie is still keeping mr. tinky happy by dipping it in the well on a semi-regular baisis with the girlfriend...so to speak.

BUT NOOO, Donnie decides that the only way he can make things straight is by going through this song and dance, setting himself up, and getting flattened by a jet engine, which will only result in:

1. Donnie Dies

2. Donnie Doesn't Get the hot chick, and she will no doubt go on to star in one of Patric Swezy's...ahem..."family" films.

3. Patric Swayze doesn't get exposed for running a kiddie porn ring, resulting in more of his psycho-babble being taught at the high school and more kids turning into zombies. (Not to mention that velvet Swayze poster is still hanging up in that mansion).

4. Donnies sister doesn't get to appear on Ed McMahns Star Search, resulting in her working at a Wendy's until her 20's.

5. Everyone in the tangent univers is now un-created. (Yep, I've seen enough episodes of Star Trek TNG, and read enough issues of Grant Morrison's Invisables to know that EVERY TIME you collapse a tangent universe everybody in it dies.) So Donnie just un-did infinity. No wonder he's crushed by a jet engine...GOD'S ROYALY PISSED OFF AT HIM.

Under further analysis, Donnie isn't realy a tragic, or heroic figure, as he is just REALY STUPID when dealing with fourth dimentional movement.

Now granted I'm no wiz with it myself. I have problems with just going FOREWARD in a fourth dimention. Hey, I have problems figuring out how laong it's going to take me to walk to work so I can get there on time. But upon further thought, Donnie just needed to be a little smarter then he was.

Now it is possible that this entire thing was set up by Grandma Death just to prove that she's not some crazy cranky lady. But since Donnie dies anyway, poof, tangent universe gone. Old cranky lady is still nuts, and God still is royaly pissed since Patric Swezy is still on the streets and will go on to star in Dirty Dancing, and Ghost, and will cause women to swoon untill 1995.

So to summarize:

Yes, I like this film. Yes, I strongly reccomend it. But the bottom line is this:

When trapped in a tangent universe created by a 4th dimentional artifact, get the hot girl. After getting the hot girl, SCREW THE SATANIC RABBIT. Kick Frank SQUARE IN THE NADS, push HIM through the wormhole, and live happily ever after pondering why in heaven's name the Smurfs dont have reproductive, because you sure enjoy using yours.

Jason

[This message has been edited by fmcorps (edited November 05, 2002).]