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2004 R / Scifi Mystery Directed by: Alex Proyas Starring: Rufus Sewell, Jennifer Connelly, William Hurt

Tagline

A world where the night never ends. Where man has no past. And humanity has no future.

Summary Capsule

John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) wakes up with amnesia, beside a corpse, and with the ability to alter the physical universe. That's the first five minutes.

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Justin's Rating: A sleeper hit for New Line
Justin's Review: Avid fans of this page might remember that I nominated Dark City as the best new cult film of 1998 — and for good reason. This overlooked classic harkens us back to the Twilight Zone days of television, where we were drawn into a mystery and not pandered to like ignorant savages. The film opens in a peculiar fashion, and the audience is not quite sure where they are, what's going on, or even what genre this film is. From then on, it's a twisting mystery/adventure for both us and the main character, an amnesiatic man who's on the run from Pinhead-lookin' strangers (called, brilliantly, "Strangers").

"Batman would feel right at home in this town."

One of the best things I love about this film is its mix of a film noir world and science fiction. Now there's a combination you don't see every day! The city is meticulously designed for an older, mid-30s look (complete with Automats, anachronisms, and subways). Batman would feel right at home in this town. All the elements of film noir are apparent: the troubled protagonist (Murdoch), the femme fatale (Jennifer Connelly), and the Joe Friday detective (William Hurt). However, as the plot unravels we realize that this is all a cover for a larger plot involving telekenetics, aliens, and some spectacular CGI sequences with buildings morphing.

As smart as the film is, I feel it did condecend a bit (I point to the unnecessary opening monologue, by Keifer Sutherland's Dr. Shruber). Even though I dislike William Hurt for his "I don't have the energy to show emotion" atmosphere, it did play well into his part. Kinda reminded me of Ed Harris.

The camera angles are varied and intruiging, keeping the audience off-tilt from their regular expectations. One of the best features of Dark City is its incredible rewatchability value; there's literally thousands of details to watch for and scenes to pick apart.

If nothing else, Dark City is a meticulously crafted world that sparks the imagination to roll long after the credits are through. Few films in our time dare to create an entirely new world to explore, and I congradulate the makers of this one for their endevours.

Kyle's Rating: Not enough Jennifer Connelly high-octane action!
Kyle's Rating: Ah, the joys of digital cable. Not only do you get 300,000 sports and nature channels (fun) but you also get a whole lot of movie channels and their derivatives (loads of fun!). Romance, mystery, independent film, science-fiction, western, Chicago cutlery... all types of movie channels with all types of movies at all times of day! Perfect for any insomniac’s viewing needs. So why is there never anything good on?

"Dark City was turning out to be the worst movie I had seen since I sat through Quiz Show at Westminster Mall."

Case in point: Dark City, which I was led to believe was a “good” movie. I am aware that lots and lots of people like, even love, this film. I was at a sci-fi convention (yes, I am a loser) and when a emcee asked the main events audience what they thought of Dark City, the hundreds of freaks sitting around me screamed and yelled their little larynxes out. I had foolishly assumed theirs were screeches of joy, so when I recently found myself adhered to my couch for the weekend I saw Dark City was about to start so I decided to give it a whirl. Finally I would see the film so many unwashed miscreants had so loudly recommended. Ten minutes in, I too was howling. Not only had I shifted on the couch resulting in the universal remote jabbing painfully into my precious right kidney, but Dark City was turning out to be the worst movie I had seen since I sat through Quiz Show at Westminster Mall. “Ow!” I cried “Dark City is such a letdown that it’s hurting me physically! I have a sharp pain in my kidney!”

What is Dark City about? About an hour and 40 minutes too long. Heh. Uh, Rufus Sewell is this dude who awakens in a hotel with no memory of who he is or where he is. However, we the audience quickly learn that by releasing a stream of clear Scrubbing Bubbles from his head, Rufus can manipulate and change reality. Or something. Dialogue, William Hurt grunting words, and lots and lots of things that are dark and wet are seen. They really should have called this movie Dark City.

Who is Rufus? What is the Scrubbing Bubbles effect? Who are the floating pale dudes in trenchcoats with really cool metal knives the likes of which haven’t been seen since Dead Ringers? What is this (insert expletives of choice here) movie? Who loves the sun, and where the heck is it? Questions, all of these are, yes? I am Yoda. But the most important questions of all: how come Jennifer Connelly has only been in two really really cool movies (Phenomena and The Rocketeer) and a load of stinkers? Why wasn’t Jennifer Connelly the Scrubbing Bubbles-releasing heroine of Dark City? Why did I watch Dark City instead of getting up and putting Tron in the VCR? And what is with my kidney!?!

Dark City is a dark science-fiction movie, and if you have cable and nothing else to do go ahead and watch it. I can’t stop you. I would not will not watch this again, I shall not should not watch it with a hen. But if I had the power of Scrubbing Bubbles at my command, watch out! Jennifer Connelly would be Wonder Woman, Bruce Campbell would be Batman, and I would rule all creation with Grant Morrison as my second-in-command. Then we’d see if films like Dark City would be produced. Yes, that will be the day!

DnaError's Rating: It sure is dark in this here city.
DnaError's Review: This was the first DVD I ever owned. The movie stands proud as the first child of my growing obsession. Why Dark City? Well, it was on sale, and ever since I caught it on TV one night, I knew I had to own it.

"It *is* style over substance"

It was like an episode of the Outer Limits given a huge budget and feature running time. The mystery of the Strangers, the film noir feel (right down to the lounge singer and anarchistic insults). I had a ball pointing the different styles, Deco! Nouveo! Moderne! until I had to be forcibly quieted. It contained shades of Metropolis, Blade Runner, Invasion of the Pod People, and Tim Burton. I wanted to own it so I could visit this strange, dark universe whenever I wanted.

The DVD goes all out, from two commentaries and really cool menus. (The back has all the features ending with an "!" no one is that excited about fullscreen.) The visuals are crisp and audio clear. Flawless? No. Jennifer Connelly has the acting skills of a blind mollusk. William Hurt looked more bored then anything. Once you know the ending... getting to it can be tedious. It *is* style over substance, unlike Blade Runner, it doesn't have the cajones to pull off The Big Questions, settling on more weird imagery. And after about an hour the movie just collapses in on itself, getting to a rushed ending that isn't so much surprising as bizarre. But for sheer visual bravdo and injecting some much needed imagination into sci-fi and movies in general.

No Christ-figure here, move along. "I'm going to inject you with six seasons of 24. It may hurt." The Happy Sunjoy Rainbow Convention of Peace

Didja Notice? [some sources: IMDb]

• Theme of spirals and mazes
• At the beginning of the film, there is a brief shot of the movie theatre which says "Now Showing, The Evil, Late Show Nightly" and to the right, "Coming Attractions, Book of Dreams" (a previous film by Alex Proyas). At the end of the movie the marquee still says "Book of Dreams" is coming soon, even though the theater and marquee have changed.
• At the beginning of the movie, the number of John Murdoch's motel room is 614. In the Bible, John 6:14 refers to the coming of the savior.
• The name of Kiefer Sutherland's character, Daniel Schreber, is the same as that of a famous patient of Sigmund Freud's.
• Sets from this film, including rooftops, buildings and others exteriors, were reused when filming The Matrix
• Murdoch's bathwater at the beginning of the film is cloudy, almost milky. When he puts the goldfish into the bathtub it is crystal clear.

Is It Worth Staying Through End Credits?

No.

Intermission! [some sources: IMDb]

Filmmakers originally did not want the exposition narrative at the beginning, seeing as how it reveals some of "secrets" of the movie in advance, but New Line made them put it in, fearing that people would be lost without it. Many fans of the film prefer to watch it with the sound turned off during the opening narration, until the first appearance of Kiefer Sutherland.

Groovy Quotes

John Murdoch: I was just thinking, what you do seems kind of dangerous right now. I mean, how do you know I'm not the killer?
May: I don't. Why, you feeling any urges I should know about?

John Murdoch: When was the last time you remember doing something during the day? And I'm not talking about some half-forgotten childhood memory, I mean like yesterday. Last week.

Mr. Wall: Do not fret, Anna. I will give you some more pretty things soon.
Emma Murdoch: I'm not Anna.
Mr. Wall: You will be soon, yes.

DVD Review

I *love* the morphing animated menus... one of the best menu systems I've seen on a DVD yet. This New Line Platinum DVD is not lacking much at all. The "To Shell Beach" game is confusing (basically, you have to navigate around menus to find objects in a particular order), but worth it for a nifty animation sequence. Extras include the trailer, some hidden scenes in cast & crew bios (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Lost In Space), a "Metropolis" comparison, set design drawings, some guy babbling about Dark City for two screens, and both widescreen and fullscreen aspects. There are two commentaries on this DVD: one by a bunch of the filmmakers (pretty boring), and one by Roger Ebert (actually quite fascinating, seeing as how Ebert's a film professor and can point out a lot of cool things in each scene that you'd never think of). The theatrical trailer for Dark City is one of my favorite trailers ever... spooky, eerie music, nice clips from the movie, and no voice-over at all. Cult writer Neil Gaiman (Sandman, Neverwhere) does an essay for the DVD special features.

Soundtrack Review

A terrific score carries this film through various moods, most dark and disturbing.

If you liked this movie, try these:

• Frequency
• The Matrix
• Brazil