Wall-to-wall scoring weakens the film

Rating: 5/10 (8 August 2003)

Dark City is an dark, interesting picture with acceptable to good acting, and a very strange character portrayed by Keifer Sutherland.
What hurts this film is the score and the way it is used. The music starts with the main title and doesn't let up until the end credits. There is not a single unscored scene in the movie. The music itself is not bad. It's synth heavy and therefore gets to be monotonous in its orchestration. But the viewer becomes numb to the score after several minutes, and thus the music is no longer able to effectively engage the viewer into the film. It becomes more of a distraction. If 1/3 of the music could be intelligently eliminated, then this is a much smarter film and goes from a 5 in my ratings to an 8 or 9.
Incidentally, the Star Wars movies are almost wall-to-wall, so are cartoons. Cartoons are generally shorter and historically stylistically acceptable with constant music. As far as the Star-Wars comparison: there isn't one. SW has much more eye-popping cinematography contrast, more diverse sound effects, and constantly shifting locations. Then there are two other points: the skill of John Williams is better than most film composers, including Christopher Young. JW also had the advantage of the London Symphony Orchestra. CY only had a synthesizer. No comparison.
Incidentally, Young cannot be blamed for any decision as to how the score was spotted. Director Alex Proyas would have the final say. Too much music is usually a symptom of a director not having confidence in the visuals and storytelling on its own.