As a recent first-time viewer of Donnie Darko, I was pleased to see the following link on Blogdex: "Everything you were afraid to ask about Donnie Darko". I thought to myself finally, I get to understand this damn film. I'll be the first to admit that I didn't really understand it even after multiple viewings, so I kinda got a bit fed up and dismissed it as vague and ambiguous for the sake of being "mysterious".

Well, the above link was definitely one worth reading (and worth the ad you have to sit through in order to get a one-day pass to their "premium content"). It offers fairly definitive explanations to most of the burning questions about the film, and a bit of light humor thrown into the mix.

My conclusion? Donnie Darko, as a movie, kinda sucks... It's practically impossible to understand the plot as intended by the director based on viewing the movie alone. In order to get the full story, it requires you to see the extended DVD as well as reading information on the Donnie Darko website (which requires some sort of hacking to even access, from the looks of it). If you're treating it not as a movie but instead as some sort of cross-medium message, then maybe it's acceptable. But the story itself still has many things wrong with it, and based on what I was expecting from all the hype, it was a pretty big letdown. Knowing the full story only enforces the fact that it's nothing particularly special...