Dark City is a frustrating mess. Full of borrowed ideas, from film noir to sci-fi, Kafka to Lang, Blade Runner to Brazil, Dark City co-opts aspects originally intriguing and fails to make them its own, let alone present them coherently. It is fractured, tedious, and, worst of all, without a heart. I mildly enjoyed the last act, where a fraction of the directions the film seemed to be going in finally clarified, but with a mind-numbingly wooden protagonist and a final confrontation rendered laughable due to budgetary constraints, it didn't even come close to redeeming the prior 3 hours (technically 80 minutes, but that's how long it felt to me).

Besides its ambitiousness never quite congealing into an involving narrative,…

January's Cyberpunk/Tech/Sci-Fi Movie Marathon (#3)

I've owned the director's cut for awhile but never watched it until now. I saw the theatrical version years ago and enjoyed it but there was no denying it had its flaws. This director's cut has absolutely no flaws. It almost angers me how this film got butchered and poorly advertised back in the 90's. It was a box office bomb and now to call it a cult classic is not enough to do it justice. This is one of the greatest films to come out of that decade. Actually it's just one of the greatest science fiction films of all time. It's like if you took Metropolis and Inception and blended them together and…

There was a period where I seemed doomed to watch sci-fi fantasy films that had great ideas behind them but ultimately proved to be really disappointing in their execution. Dark City was yet another of them.

The problem Dark City had, for me, was nothing to do, per se, with the execution of its excellent central idea nor with the visuals, but more to do with the pacing of it, the dialogue and the performances. It seemed to me that having spent a pretty good chunk of its running time establishing the story that it rather rushes through its middle section towards a climax that was almost its saving grace.

It does not help the film that Rufus Sewell is…

I liked this film a good deal. If you liked 'Brazil' or 'The Matrix', you'll be in for a treat. I was immediately immersed in the dim atmosphere, paying close attention to the cautious dialogue and pale faces. The cinematography could be considered 'fast-paced', 'chaotic', and perhaps 'frantic', and I think that's exactly what Proyas was going for, folks. The stuttering flow of events really compelled me.

I don't want to say much about the plot, but I have a couple recommendations for you. If you're picking this up, make sure to grab the Director's Cut, as I think the lack of the narrative definitely helped set up the mood the way it did. Additionally, watch it with the context…

"We are the sum of our memories."

This movie is something else entirely. How do you begin to describe it? I used to hate it as a child, because my older brother watched it constantly. I'd wake up and he'd be watching this confusing movie. I realize though at age 23 that it's an incredible work of creative powers that reminds me of a HG Wells classic.

Though its profound narrative deals with identity, memories, love and the inescapable demise of all things living, it follows its story so closely that its significance is held in symbols and interpretation. Shell beach, this giant machine that helps The Strangers control the city. Our jobs, and The Strangers themselves seem like God…