There's no way the film was self-contained. You definitely needed outside sources in order to understand it, or for any of it to make sense. That's the reason there's 20 minutes added to it. I haven't seen the Director's Cut, but definitely waiting to. One of the things that's been added are scenes from the book that clear things up.
Spoiler:
For example, how would you know that Donnie, as the Chosen One, has special abilities? He has telekenesis (thus enabling him to rip the jet engine off the plane and send it back through the vortex and closing the whole) and super-strength (enabling him to ram the axe through the solid bronze statue).
I understand it's better to leave some interpretation open, but this is a far cry from it. In the original, when Donnie first meets Frank outside his house, Frank says "God is watching you. I'm watching you." Or something to that extent. Kelley had it taken out because he felt it showed too much and ruined it for the audiance. That was a good move.
But yea, I loved the movie. But I'm also the type of guy who loves mind-fuck movies and has to look it up and find as much info about it as possible right after getting up from my seat. It's become ritual to check out the movie on IMDB right afterwards.
On a side note, I kept thinking to myself "dude this guy sounds EXACTLY like tobey mcguire". It's funny because he was already cast for the role in Spider-Man 2 until Tobey decided to come back for it at the last minute. Good replacement choice by the studio. Anyway, i'm rambling.
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