Review: Dark City (1998)

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Dark City

Rating

Director

Alex Proyas

Screenplay

Alex Proyas, Lem Dobbs, David S. Goyer

Length

1h 40m

Starring

Rufus Sewell, William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, Richard O’Brien, Ian Richardson, Bruce Spence, Colin Friels, John Bluthal, Mitchell Butel, Melissa George, Frank Gallacher

MPAA Rating

Basic Plot

A group of “strangers” has collected a handful of people to perform experiments on. They have a surprising ability: they can change matter with at their own will.

Review

Rufus Sewell plays John Murdoch, a gifted man who has a dangerous power that the “strangers” want to examine and destroy.

Our guide through the story is Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland). He tells us of what he calls “the strangers.” They are an advanced alien race whose civilization is dying. They abduct several humans from Earth and bring them to their own creation where they mix and match their memories with one another.

Richard O’Brien and Ian Richardson play Dr. Hand and Dr. Book respectively. They are the “strangers” with the most dialogue and most importance to the story. Throughout the film we see hundreds of other “strangers,” but few have any momentous parts.

The remainder of the class is police detective Bumstead (William Hurt) and John’s wife Emma (Jennifer Connolly).

This film is one of the better science fiction/fantasy films to come out in the past two years. It has a dark and seedy plotline with great cinematography to go along with it. It has some acceptable, if not good acting throughout, especially from Richard O’Brien. The art direction is also terrific.

The other major item of note in the film is its visual effects. From a giant clock to a city changing before our eyes, Dark City is one of the most spectacular visual effects feats to come out in recent memory. The visual effects would easily rival Titanic’s.

Awards Prospects

Dark City is an early favorite for Cinematography, Art Direction, Sound Effects and Visual Effects. More films will arrive this year, ultimately forcing Dark City to be forgotten, which is a shame.