Dark and complex sci-fi classic

Rating: 8/10 (27 January 2006)

When this movie first came out, I read some very good reviews of it, noted that it starred the rather lovely Jennifer Connelly, and never got round to watching it. Until recently, when I saw it on sale for £5, and snapped it up. This was A GOOD THING.
The visual feel of the movie is the first thing that strikes you - grimy, dark, cold and completely foreboding. The city has an aura straight out of 40's and 50's Noir, with steaming alleys, dishevelled characters and anachronistic architecture. The second thing is the sheer dynamics of the editing. With an ASL of 1.8 seconds, the visuals bombard the viewer, and the dense plot perplexes until the layers are slowly stripped away to reveal the insidious plans of The Strangers.
The story is taut, the acting is convincing and the aesthetics of the movie are quite fantastic, a film noir for the sci-fi age. I was told before seeing it that it was a great film, even if the last twenty minutes were "a little too Dragonball Z", an fairly accurate assessment of some of the shots, but not enough to denigrate from the movie overall. An underrated and overlooked sci-fi classic that anyone with an interest in solid film-making or dark expressionism simply must see.