Subject: Review: Dark City (1998)

From: "Chris T. Dias" <[email-masked]>
Date: 26 May 1998 04:08:07 GMT

DARK CITY

STARRING: Rufus Sewell, William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer
Connelly, Richard O'Brien WRITTEN BY: Alex Proyas, Lem Dobbs and David
S. Goyer DIRECTED BY: Alex Proyas.

 --PLOT--

 Dark City is a great visionary achievement, a film so original and
exciting, it stirred my imagination like no movie has in a long time.
It opens with a narration by Dr.  Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) who
tells of a dying race known only as The Strangers.  They came down
from a distant world to examine humanity.  Their experiment and their
subjects inhabit a city of rumbling elevated streamlined trains, dank
flophouses, scurrying crowds and store windows.  A city of night and
shadows, but it goes far beyond "Batman" in a richness of ominous,
stylized sets, streets, skylines and cityscapes.  For once a movie
city equals any we could picture in our minds.  A true clash of
futuristic style with a gothic metropolis thrown into the soup.  This
city can't exist in reality...unless it is not reality.

 Here, the sun never rises and midnight falls every 12 hours.  When
the clock strikes twelve, everyone sleeps, and the Strangers emerge.
They run their experiment, change things, and sink back into the
depths to observe.  The people have no idea.  They awake and continue
their lives, oblivious...until something goes wrong.

 On occasion, a person awakes during this frozen time.  They learn the
truth that something bizarre occurs in this town, and they start
asking questions.  One such person is John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) who
awakens in a strange bathtub beneath a swinging ceiling lamp, to
blood, fear and guilt. The telephone rings; it is Dr.  Schreber
(Kiefer Sutherland), gasping out two or three words at a time, as if
the need to speak is all that gives him breath. He warns Murdoch to
flee, and indeed three Strangers are in the corridor, coming for him.
There is a dead girl at his feet.  Did he commit this crime?  If he is
an evil man, why did he take a moment to save a dying fish?

 He flees.  Without any knowledge of who he is, John wanders through
the town, trying to piece together his past.  He remembers the woman
he loves, or loved--his wife, Emma (Jennifer Connelly), who is a torch
singer with sad eyes and wounded lips. And he remembers ... Shell
Beach?  Where was that? He sees it on a billboard and old longings
stir.

 On top of the billboard, he is attacked by a group Strangers.  They
are as confused as he is.  Why isn't he sleeping like the rest?  The
answer shocks them all, he might be developing their power...the
ability to "tune"-the art of altering matter at its basic level.  This
ability is revealed in its most shocking form when midnight strikes
again and John witnesses the populace falling into comas.  What is
more shocking is how the town changes.  Buildings grow and melt away.
Rooms expand.  A couple in the ghetto is dressed in nice clothes, the
building mutates from a run down apartment block into a mansion.  To
finalize the picture, the couple and anyone related have their
memories implanted by good doctor Shreber.

 John joins with his wife for the search for the truth.  But more than
the Stranger's pursue him.  Lest we forget that Robert was found in a
room with a dead girl.  Apparently this could by his sixth victim.  Is
he a murderer or has he been set up?  The investigator on the case is
new to this precinct, Inspector Bumstead (William Hurt).  He replaces
his predecessor, who apparently, went mad.

 The Strangers have gotten nervous.  To help hunt down Murdoch, one of
their own, Mr. Hand (Richard O'Brien)-They all have names like that.
Their leader is known as Mr.  Book-has Murdoch's own memories
implanted in him so he can think like the human subject.

 Murdoch's problem is that he has no way of knowing if his memories
are real, if his past actually happened, if the women he loves ever
existed.  Those who offer to help him cannot be trusted.  Even his
enemies may not be real. The movie teasingly explores the question
that babies first ask in peek-a-boo: When I can't see you, are you
there?  It's through that game that we learn the difference between
ourselves and others.  But what if we're not there, either?

-- REVIEW
--

 Dark City is a glorious marriage of existential dread and slam-bang
action.  From the start, I got somewhat disillusioned from a couple
less-than-spectacular model shots of the city.  The movie seems loose
in its first act.  Only when certain questions are answered about
setting, do we start to fully understand what is going on.  Luckily,
this happens almost immediately...but the story does not open itself
up.  In fact there were surprises I had no idea were coming until the
very end.

 It seems that every year, a low budget sci-fi film comes out that
sweeps the critics.  Somehow, these low-budget flicks aren't seen by
many people.  They slip into obscurity...that is, until word of mouth
gets out and it becomes a cult hit.  Richard O'Brien should be aware
of cult hits (those who know what I am talking about can smirk an
little smirk and continue).

 Two years ago, it was The Arrival, a brilliant film by writer
extrodinaire', David Twohy.  It opened between Mission: Impossible and
Twister and promptly got killed.  Last year, it was Gattaca.  Now, it
is Dark City...too bad there is usually only one of these per year.
Dark City came out too quickly.  For one reason is the little boat
movie that never sinks.

 Dark City is one of the most original science fiction films I have
ever seen.  Please note I use the word "film."  This is the kind of
fiction we see often in novels and comics.  They always have a real
sense of original energy that so many movies lack.  In fact, upon
looking back, there were many elements in this film I that I
remembered in books like Ringworld, comics like Akira, and even the
Final Fantasy computer game.

 However, Dark City plays above them all with a fantastic story.  It
never lays it out in your lap, but unlike some other films, it does
make sense.  So many movies are so confusing, you have to think about
it for hours just put your mind at ease at the plot holes.  Dark City
makes you think but explains just enough that you understand what is
happening.

 The single best part of this film is the ending...It has one.  So
many high budget films of the past year have no third act (see Men in
Black and The Fifth Element).  The energy of the last act is enough
for two films.  Everything comes together with a great irony and
fantastic apocalyptic ballet that made me doubt the budget of this
film.  Alex Proyas is a stylistic director with a great imagination.
I was glued at the visuals of this movie.  The set designs are
unbelievable (reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's Brazil) and the music was
amazingly epic.

 The effects got better and better.  The sequences in so many films
can be switched with other films.  Take the cable car chase from
Metro, The Rock, and Heaven's Prisoners and juggle them around...you
wouldn't tell them apart.  Here, the sequences are very unique.  In
one amazing scene, the Stranger's are tuning the city.  Buildings rise
and fall.  Towers assemble in seconds.  Murdoch is pursued by flying
strangers.  After leaping across rooftops that move up and down, he
finds himself trapped between two buildings which are colliding.  He
then runs through one, out a door, only discover the rest of the
building hasn't been constructed yet.  He hangs for dear life and
saves himself by jumping on a chimney that rises up beside him.  Just
imagine it.

 Dark City is a film that begs repeat viewing because of the amount of
intelligence it shows.  There is so much to see and think about that I
walked away constantly jabbering about its good points.  Dark City is
a great film and I plead to everyone to consider it as an alternative
to the Titanic juggernaut.

GREAT POINTS: SET DESIGN IMAGINATION STORY

PLUSES: DIRECTION SPECIAL EFFECTS

MINUSES: NONE

WORST POINTS: NONE

RATING: 5 stars out of 5.

DEMOGRAPHIC: There is little language and little blood.  We have
nudity and some dead bodies.  The one thing that will turn off younger
viewers is the same complaint about LA Confidential (complaint?!).
The story is not simple and most kids won't have the foggiest what is
happening.  Dark City is a movie of intelligence.  Unless you have
some, keep away.

-- --- Chris T. Dias --- "The man who runs with scissors."