Interesting idea, poorly executed.

Rating: 6/10 (24 February 2015)

John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakes with no memories, in an apartment with an eccentric doctor (Keifer Sunderland) who makes little sense, in a city where the sun never shines, and ghoul like beings haunt every corner. Murdoch tries to piece together what's going on in this nightmarish landscape, these ghouls are however doing their best to stop him.
Alex Proyas tries to weld two genres together; noir and sci-fi, and this complicated, b-movie-esque film is the result. Visually this film is unique; the ghouls inhabit a steam-punk underworld, while Murdoch and the humans occupy a world frozen in the 1940s. The contrast works well with the lighting and angles chosen by Proyas. However the editing is a mess, in the first 30 minutes there are possibly 300 cuts, this frantic editing undermines the visuals completely, and it took me much longer than it should to immerse myself in the world. Proyas also mimics the Star Trek style for action sequences, and while sci-fi fans may get some kick out of this, it just felt cheesy to me.
Acting in this film is a mixed bag; the performances themselves are top notch and Kiefer Sunderland is particularly impressive. The doctor is a wretched, worm like man, yet Sunderland plays him with a great deal of compassion. There are many scenes where we can empathise with this broken man, and Sunderland behaves like a kicked dog.
It's the direction, however, that weakens the acting in this film. Anything involving a green screen the actors tense up and look lost. In one of the character's death he falls into a computer generated back ground and the look on his face is one of confusion. There is also a montage sequence with Sunderland and he delivers his lines so awkwardly it feels like he is reading them for the first time. Did Proyas not outline to them how these scenes were going to be inserted into the film?
Dialogue in this film is also a bit hackneyed; Jennifer Connolly, in particular, has to deliver some stale lines. Parts of the script should definitely have been re-written, as the phrasing for some of the conversations seems so familiar that it feels like parody.
There is some self-awareness to this film, and it was a fun to watch. Proyas also manages to capture a fin-de-siècle atmosphere that was typical at the turn of the 21st century, and there could be even some direct comparisons made to The Martrix.
This film was recommended to me as a cult classic, and I can easily imagine some people having a great affinity for Dark City. Still, it was a little bit naff.