Visually appealing, but fails in most respects

Rating: 5/10 (14 February 2019)

This movie seems to receive praise, but I am not sure why. The visuals are striking, but that is about the only redeeming factor of this movie. There is some good acting by William Hurt and Jennifer Connoly, but it is ruined by the stiff acting of Rufus Sewell, the main protagonist. At times, I wondered if they had shot the scenes with the actors in the same room.
The plot is horribly overexposed. Everything is explained by the characters in a manner clearly directed at the audience in a 'tell, don't show' manner. The few things I actually would have liked to know something about, namely why John Murdoch was special or where the alien creatures came from, was kept entirely from the audience. The movie seems to try very hard to be intellectually cohesive, without actually being clever.
By far the strongest point is the beginning, where we are left to wonder if John Murdoch is actually a killer, but the plot rushes forward so fast and explains everything so clearly that we quite quickly understand that this is not the case, and the real suspense dies. The final scene especially, where John Murdoch and the main villain duke it out in a Dragonball Z 'my-beam-versus-your-beam' battle was plain silly.
Dark City is by no means a bad movie; I've seen plenty worse with bigger budgets. But I can't recommend it, nor can I understand why people seem to think this is a classic.