Surprisingly Good

Rating: 2/10 (17 October 1998)

Dark City is the only Sci-Fi film I've seen this decade that had a completely original story. After seeing massively hyped no-brainers like Lethal Weapon 4, Armageddon and Godzilla this was really surprising. The first half of the movie reminded me of the classic film-noirs of the 40s and 50s, and the loud, adventure-packed second half brought back memories of Sci-Fi cults like Blade Runner, Total Recall and Eraserhead. The lead- Rufus Sewell- gives a pretty 2-d but wonderfully confused performance as the unlikely hero, and he is backed up well by Kiefer Sutherland's maniacal act and William Hurt's confident change-of-pace. But Jennifer Connelly is pretty stale, and the villains seem to lose their dark creepiness at the start of the movie when the director tells us more about them and adds heartful purpose to their evil terrorism. The special effects aren't as good as people say, just fresh and new. The end battle sequence was really hilarious and I think it was louder than the end explosion sequence in Armageddon. But the story was magnificent, and the edge-of-your-seat mystery and thrills are surprising for a film nowadays. Highly recommended.