S Darko. Yeah they really made it. If you liked Donnie Darko, you will hate this. If you never saw Donnie Darko, you will have absolutely no clue in hell whats going on in this movie because the filmmakers don't explain anything and assume everyone knows Donnie Darko like the back of their hand. And even if you know every last detail of the first film, understand tangent universes and own a copy of Roberta Sparrow's time travel book, you will be totally confused as well.
Samantha Darko and her friend are driving, somewhere and they wind up in this town with all these really unconvincing people. It's funny that some parts of this movie tried to be scary, but the most unnerving thing of all is the MISCASTING. Iraq Jack is supposed to be this crazy Iraq war veteran, but he looks like he just skipped class in highschool and wandered onto the set. There's this nerdy guy who tries to hit on Sam, except he looks way too pretty to be a nerd. Everyone in this movie is PRETTY. And all the guys have long hair and look really phony. Even the costumes look like they were picked up at Goodwill. Daveign Chase herself wears nothing but her underwear for pretty much the entire movie. Not that I'm complaining though.
Did I mention there is a TON of secondary characters, all of whom do nothing but tell Sam she has a destiny and that God is watching and blah blah blah. It's supposed to sound deep and meaningful, and some of it is well written but it never amounts to anything. All of the actors are pretty terrible, but Daveigh Chase herself is really bad. She looks good in front of the camera, but mumbles her way through her lines at several points. Ed Westwick should get an award for never moving his face during this entire movie. I'm serious, I don't think he blinked. Elizabeth Berkely shows up as a devout Christian housewife, with some completely idiotic dialog. She also looks totally haggard every time she's on screen.
The mystique of Donnie Darko has been totally lost here. The story of the original was supposed to be left open to interpretation at the end, and this is a really bad interpretation of that story. Somehow since Sam dies in one flow of time during this movie, she can become a manipulated dead... while she's SLEEPING? She goes around as this pale ghost self and changes some things. She makes someone burn down a church for no real reason other than to mirror the first film. And apparently she 'doesn't dream' according to the words that open the movie. She can create unicorns running in the clouds with her mind though. And somehow characters in this movie can simply go back in time at will, and something about a glowing blue feather. Doesn't this totally go against what happened in the first movie? Donnie Darko didn't have 'powers'. They tried to explain everything that was ambiguous in DD, and by doing so they confound all continuity with the original while leaving nothing to the imagination, simplifying the themes and creating nothing original of their own.
The plot of this movie is basically just ripped from the first movie. Iraq Jack has to get crushed by the meteor in order to close the time loop, pretty much the same as Donnie. This is about the only thing that really makes sense. Both the female leads wind up dead at points in the movie, but there's no emotional weight to this at all because we KNOW they will come back to life. The nerdy guy appears to have a flesh-eating disease that is never explained. Then his face turns all black and weird like a demon. Did I mention Iraq Jack is Roberta Sparrow's grandson? What's the point of this and why does he create a Frank mask? Who locked the two kids in the cave?
All in all, a very sloppy film with almost no redeeming values. A lot of it probably looked good on paper, and there are some promising scenes, but the execution is just lazy. Daveigh Chase in her underwear almost makes it worth watching. Almost.
Samantha Darko and her friend are driving, somewhere and they wind up in this town with all these really unconvincing people. It's funny that some parts of this movie tried to be scary, but the most unnerving thing of all is the MISCASTING. Iraq Jack is supposed to be this crazy Iraq war veteran, but he looks like he just skipped class in highschool and wandered onto the set. There's this nerdy guy who tries to hit on Sam, except he looks way too pretty to be a nerd. Everyone in this movie is PRETTY. And all the guys have long hair and look really phony. Even the costumes look like they were picked up at Goodwill. Daveign Chase herself wears nothing but her underwear for pretty much the entire movie. Not that I'm complaining though.
Did I mention there is a TON of secondary characters, all of whom do nothing but tell Sam she has a destiny and that God is watching and blah blah blah. It's supposed to sound deep and meaningful, and some of it is well written but it never amounts to anything. All of the actors are pretty terrible, but Daveigh Chase herself is really bad. She looks good in front of the camera, but mumbles her way through her lines at several points. Ed Westwick should get an award for never moving his face during this entire movie. I'm serious, I don't think he blinked. Elizabeth Berkely shows up as a devout Christian housewife, with some completely idiotic dialog. She also looks totally haggard every time she's on screen.
The mystique of Donnie Darko has been totally lost here. The story of the original was supposed to be left open to interpretation at the end, and this is a really bad interpretation of that story. Somehow since Sam dies in one flow of time during this movie, she can become a manipulated dead... while she's SLEEPING? She goes around as this pale ghost self and changes some things. She makes someone burn down a church for no real reason other than to mirror the first film. And apparently she 'doesn't dream' according to the words that open the movie. She can create unicorns running in the clouds with her mind though. And somehow characters in this movie can simply go back in time at will, and something about a glowing blue feather. Doesn't this totally go against what happened in the first movie? Donnie Darko didn't have 'powers'. They tried to explain everything that was ambiguous in DD, and by doing so they confound all continuity with the original while leaving nothing to the imagination, simplifying the themes and creating nothing original of their own.
The plot of this movie is basically just ripped from the first movie. Iraq Jack has to get crushed by the meteor in order to close the time loop, pretty much the same as Donnie. This is about the only thing that really makes sense. Both the female leads wind up dead at points in the movie, but there's no emotional weight to this at all because we KNOW they will come back to life. The nerdy guy appears to have a flesh-eating disease that is never explained. Then his face turns all black and weird like a demon. Did I mention Iraq Jack is Roberta Sparrow's grandson? What's the point of this and why does he create a Frank mask? Who locked the two kids in the cave?
All in all, a very sloppy film with almost no redeeming values. A lot of it probably looked good on paper, and there are some promising scenes, but the execution is just lazy. Daveigh Chase in her underwear almost makes it worth watching. Almost.