Dark City Micro Review

Originally published on judamasmas s-tumblrs

Dark City (Alex Proyas, 1998) must be one of the most underrated films of the 90’s, beign almost a failure at box office performance, it has earned with the passing of the years high acclamation from movie critics (strangely perhaps? like Roger Ebert) and audiences, becoming a cult classic. This movie presents you with a simulated reality story, it wasn’t a new way of storytelling at that time, but for further enjoyment of this movie you have to consider that it was released one year before The Matrix. In this fictional world a race of aliens called simply the Strangers have enslaved humanity without them to realize what’s happening. I said enslaved? it’s better to say that they are having a huge experiment with humans in order to find a solution and prevent their annihilation. The experiments consists in that they are changing the shape of the city every night, or maybe to say night is not so appropriate because there’s no sun (that’s why the movie it’s called dark city), so they change the shape of the city once in a while, replace the people’s memories and swap their location on the city. But the moving force of the movie, speaking in other movie’s language starts when an anomaly or an unexpected value affects the equation. John Murdock is the main character in the movie and he’s a human with the same psychokinetic powers as the Strangers, he’s lost his memories and has been framed with murder by the Strangers. So the movie it’s about him trying to make sense on what’s happening while escaping the firm grip of the Strangers. So, the rating, I give this movie a perfect score, it’s actually one of my favorite movies ever. The performances are excellent, Rufus Sewell makes a good main character but not amazing, but we have the strange scientific in Kiefer Sutherland, the police detective in William Hurt and OH MY GOD!! my love Jennifer Connelly is the wife of the protagonist and she sings! (actually only sings on the Director’s Cut), the Strangers look very evil and disturbing so they are great bad guys. On the effects side, special mention on the morphing sequences of the city. Music is very good and it always emphazises the menace of the Strangers and keeps you on your toes. The story, my favorite part, is simply amazing, it’s based on the always amazing argument, y’know? maybe nothing is real…