Subject: Review: Dark City (1998)

From: "Christian MacInnis" <[email-masked]>
Date: 23 Mar 1998 01:47:39 GMT

___________
 DARK CITY
A Film By Alex Proyas

Reviewed By Christian MacInnis

Upon arriving at the theater during the opening credits, I took my seat
and prepared myself for what appeared to be "Hellraiser meets The Crow". 
But as soon as Kiefer Sutherland began speaking the narrative monologue,
describing "The Strangers" and their reasons for contacting human beings, I
was hooked.

There was something especially compelling about the nature of his voice. 
I knew from the start that I was going to witness the actions of his
character rather than the actor attempting the character.  Sutherland
played the role as a true veteran.  Upon the completion of his monologue,
the camera arrives on Sutherland in such a fashion that you can only wonder
how long Alex Proyas spent on cinematography.  I would imagine, for a film
of this caliber, that maximum hours of work were spent where they were
needed the most.  The film flowed beautifully.  

As I was being taken through the intricate regions of the "Dark City", a
clever plot began to unravel, to the point where the last time I had seen
such clever plot twists were in "The Usual Suspects".  Not to mention a
series of special effects that would make James Cameron literally turn
green with envy.  

But if you're not exactly the biggest sci-fi fan, caveat emptor.  Get
ready for the atmostpheric darkness of "12 Monkeys" or "The Crow" without
the boredom or depression.  The concept of the plot is as mindstretching as
"12 Monkeys" was, however, so be prepared and be sophisticated.  And
imagine a picture that finally does justice to the
comic-book-gone-feature-film fad that Hollywood has recently become abusive
of.  DARK CITY simply puts "Spawn" to shame.  In fact, during the climax of
the film I couldn't help but feel the strong presence of an "Akira"-esque
explosion throughout the general feeling of the movie.  So my initial
predictions were wrong.  This film is anything but the meloncholy of
"Hellraiser" parts one through five.

I'm never one to base a film entirly on special effects, so know that when
I give DARK CITY 

****1/2 (out of *****)

it's actually because the film contained all of the neccessary ingredients
to keep me entertained and awake from storyline to plot twists to
camerawork to even (tsk, tsk) special effects.  Not since Contact have I
recieved such deep insight into the way the human mind operates and never
this year have I been so blown away.  The best film I've seen all year, and
easily one of the best I've ever seen

Christian MacInnis

Review ©1998 Christian L. MacInnis