3 more reviews

1. ›Dark City, noirish mystery@ismaca710d

   [Image](https://www.filmaffinity.com/ve/filmimages.php?movie_id=144063)

    

   Dark City is a true cult classic that has only grown in esteem since its initial, unsung release.

   Directors Alex Proyas, Lem Dobbs and cinematographer Dariusz Wolski fashioned a nocturnal fever dream of a film decades ahead of its time.

   With its Expressionist shadows and surreal production design, Proyas transports us to a nightmarish yet captivating alternate reality.

   [Image](https://www.filmaffinity.com/ve/filmimages.php?movie_id=144063)

    

   In this steampunk-tinged metropolis, mysterious "Strangers" haunt empty streets conducting sinister experiments on amnesiac citizens.

   At the story's pulsating heart is Rufus Sewell's tortured soul, slowly uncovering shattering truths as he is both hunter and hunted.

   But it is Kiefer Sutherland's unsettlingly charismatic villain "Dr. Schreber" who remains the film's chilling anchor and most memorable character.

   Dark City raises unsettling questions about the nature of reality, memory, and human identity that still feel provocatively cutting-edge.

   [Image](https://www.filmaffinity.com/ve/filmimages.php?movie_id=144063)

    

   Its noirish mystery unfolds at a hypnotic pace that keeps viewers in a constant state of nervous anticipation and disquiet.

   Though it left American theaters within weeks, Dark City has emerged as a true phantasmagorical masterwork of sci-fi storytelling.

   Its nightmarish vision deserves recognition among the genre's most feverishly rewatched landmarks.

   It grossed a respectable $27 million worldwide against a $27 million budget, finding its audience on home video/streaming as word of mouth spread of its mind-bending visionary accomplishments.

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2. ›Film Review: Dark City (1998)@drax1236d

   

   Old adage of “it’s good to be good, but it’s better to be lucky” can be applied to film makers. All the extraordinary and undisputed talent didn’t help Australian film director Alex Proyas when his career became affected by extraordinarily bad luck. The Crow, his first major production, was forever overshadowed by the tragic death of its main star. The critics took something of a pity on Proyas and showered that film with too much praise only to compensate this with greeting his next film with more undeserved hostility. That film also had misfortune of having basic premise with a lot of similarity with the film that would only a year later become smashing success. All those circumstances conspired to turn Dark City, a science fiction which would have been remembered as classic and masterpiece of the genre, into one of the most tragically underrated science fiction film of 1990s.

   The plot is set in what, at least at first glance, looks like big US city in mid 1950s. The protagonist, played by Rufus Sewell, is man who awakes naked in bathtub, later finds himself room with dead prostitute and is without any memory who he is and how he ended there. He then answers phone call by eccentric psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Poe Schreber (played by Kiefer Sutherland) who warns him that he must escape. He does so before the hotel is visited by sinister-looking group of characters called Strangers, led by someone called Mr. Hand (played by Richard O’Brien). The protagonist gradually finds that his name is John Murdoch and the key to his identity might be Emma Murdoch (played by Jennifer Connelly), beautiful torch singer who is supposed to be his wife. At the same time, police inspector Frank Bumstead (played by William Hurt) is investigating murders of prostitutes and although all the evidence points at Murdoch, Bumstead is increasingly doubtful of that. As he tries to escape and establish his identity Murdoch begin to notice some strange details about the city, like complete lack of sunlight, all people suddenly falling asleep at midnight while himself remembers growing up at the beach which nobody can point directions to.

   Viewers who are familiar with major works of science fiction literature could easily recognise the basic concept between Dark City, very much like those used in the works of Philip K. Dick and often revolving around the issues of perception and reality. Dick’s opus has already inspired two classic science fiction films - Blade Runner and Total Recall, and although Dark City is based on Proyas’ original idea, it could easily be described as “Dickian”. Proyas has developed with his script with the help of Lem Dobbs and David S. Goyer; the latter would later become one of Hollywood’s most successful screenwriters of our times. The screenplay is very intelligent and (at least in its original version) doesn’t want to insult viewer’s intelligence. Small but important hints are dropped before the audience is able to collect all the pieces of the puzzle and discover the true nature of the protagonist’s world.

   Proyas, like in The Crow, displayed great visual talent and brought fascinating world that is both familiar and fantastical. Helped by production design by Patrick Tatoupulos and costumes by Liz Keogh, he created atmosphere that combines film noir with German Expressionism, while at the same time dropping just enough baffling anachronisms to make his film look “retrofuturistic”. This combination of film noir and science fiction, which haven’t worked that well since Blade Runner, is also helped by excellent music soundtrack by Trevor Jones and special effects that combine old school techniques like miniatures with CGI that looks impressive even after quarter of century.

   Proyas also enjoyed excellent cast. British actor Rufus Sewell, who was relatively unknown at the time, is very good in the role of the protagonist who seems as baffled with his surroundings as the audience. His less-than-Hollywood look gives Dark City important Hitchcockian quality of “ordinary man in extraordinary situation” which function well at the very beginning of the plot. Jennifer Connelly, often considered one of the most beautiful actresses of her generation, also functions well in the role of character which deliberately uses visual tropes of film noir. William Hurt is also very good in one of the first roles in which that actor came to terms with his advanced age and played character which was both intelligent and vulnerable. Kiefer Sutherland, by that time quite comfortable in the position of dependable character actor, is arguably the most impressive in the complex role of mysterious character of shifting loyalties; his character is, on the other hand, slightly deformed and weak and Sutherland deliberately bases his work on the the roles played by grand character actor Peter Lorre in 1930s and 1940s classics. Richard O’Brien, British actor known for his cult role of Riff-Raff in Rocky Horror Picture Show also delivers great performance despite having to work under heavy make-up.

   For all of his talent, Proyas wasn’t able to resist the pressure of studio executives who considered premise of Dark City too clever for average audience. He had to add opening narration explaining basic concept, thus sabotaging his own film. Even with this Dark City failed to make big impression at the box office and was soon overshadowed by The Matrix, film with similar basic idea which also also used some of its sets during production. The film nevertheless gradually built its own cult status and proved to be influential, most visibly in some scenes used by Nolan’s Inception many years later. In 2008 Proyas made Director’s Cut that removed the opening narration and added few scenes and more refined special effects, thus further improving reputation of this tragically underrated gem of science fiction cinema.

   RATING: 9/10 (++++)

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3. ›A review of "Dark City": a neo noir sci-fi that inspired The Matrix@aurzeq1355d

   

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   Plot

   In a hotel room, John Murdock (Rufus Sewell) awakens to discover a dead body. In search of the truth, the guy finds himself lost in a city with no name and enveloped in a never-ending night, unable to recall who he is or what his prior life was like.

   Murdock, after finding his wife Emma and speaking with the enigmatic scientist Daniel Schreber, learns he is being pursued not only by investigator Frank Bumsteadum, but also by a group of humanoids with terrifying telekinetic abilities known as the "Strangers".

   

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   Why should you watch it?

   Alex Proyas became one of the "hot names" in sci-fi film and its surroundings as a result of The Crow's global success (due to the tragic fate of its protagonist Brandon Lee).

   (check my review if you are interested in the movie: The Crow - a must watch movie with Brandon Lee

   The Australian director, who had a large number of resources at his disposal, once again plays with the settings, building a "dark city" from scratch and filming the entire movie in a studio, using no 'real' locations at all. The result is a city that seems to have emerged straight from a dreamlike imagery, evoking many others without being specifically related to any of them.

   

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   Dark City has no specific setting; it might take place at any time in history or in any location in the United States. The characters travel between run-down coastal museums, filthy, prostitute-filled hotels, police stations straight out of a Raymond Chandler novel, and smokey clubs where Jennifer Connelly performs in front of an antique microphone with an angelic voice. Proyas alternates massive sets with cutting-edge special effects that move every time nightfall (though it might equally be midday) and deform and reconstruct the city, giving it a new face, with these decadent and dusty interiors. In a dungeon, a massive clock indicates the time when everything comes to an end, everyone falls asleep, and their life changes. In the City, if they so choose, you can go to sleep as a regular person and awaken as a murderer. In the City, you can believe you have been working at the same job for 25 years even though you were only put there a few seconds ago because the emotions you feel have been implanted into your brain. And if you wake up during the city's artificially induced sleep, you can either lose your mind or become the only person capable of dispelling this illusion.

   

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   The City is a vision—a dream or a nightmare in which our memories and our souls are inextricably linked, in which an ancient race with a single collective mind tries valiantly to comprehend what makes us special, and in which they create a false universe around us in order to steal our individuality unhindered. A zoo where the sun never rises, where emotions you've never experienced are forced upon you, and where your genuine past is gone and lost for all time. Who knows if Earth exists, if there is anything outside of that channel, and if the Ocean is nothing more than a ghostly, faint remembrance of something that never was and never will be.

   The four main characters complement one another, and each has a distinct role to play. Ranging from the perplexed Rufus Sewell to Jennifer Connelly's magnificent dark-lady, William Hurt's tough detective to Kiefer Sutherland's troubled doctor, the cast's uniformity and their alter-egos succeed in making the development of relationships credible and forging an audience connection.

   

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   Dark City has a story that, perhaps, has a few too many twists and turns, leaving the viewer constantly in the dark about what lies ahead on the path to the truth.

   Conclusion

   Dark City was sadly not well received by the audience, which resulted in a box office failure approximately equivalent to the production expenditure. This did not stop Proyas' movie from becoming a cult classic, and an inspiration for a lot of other movies that came after (like Matrix, one of my favorite movies). If you have not seen this movie, and you are a fan of sci-fi, then you have no time to lose... go and see it!!!

   Rating

   My personal vote is:

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   8.5/10

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