The biggest problem with watching the movie now versus watching the movie then is the 'Character was dead the whole time' trope is basically a meme at this point. Find a movie up for any sort of interpretation and you'll find people suggesting character X was dead the whole time and that's why the story played out the way it did. I don't know you but I imagine this is an idea that has seepewd it's way into your head just by being alive and on reddit today. When the movie came out back in 1999 this trope was notused frequently at all and was not a general theory for most people. It truly was innovative for many movie goers. So most people never suspected a thing even though we see the main character get shot at the very beginning of the movie. Today's audience is a little too savvy for stuff like that today. So unfortunately you missed out on our general ignorance of the 90's.