One of the Best Movies Ever Made

Rating: 10/10 (12 June 2004)

Words can't begin to describe the admiration that I have for this movie. Even to this day, six years after seeing it for the first time, I can't get over the freshness, originality, and overall boldness of Alex Proyas' visionary masterpiece. Now that Proyas is getting a larger budget for I, Robot this year, I felt that it would be time to credit Proyas' earlier science fiction masterpiece in anticipation that I, Robot would only live up to this film.
From the opening shots of this film, the viewer is instantly plummeted into a bold and grand setting of an indistinct city that seems that this is how noir films of the forties would look if they were in color. After a display of the bizarre occurrence that happens to the city around midnight, we are introduced to the film's protagonist, a man named John Murdoch, who awakens in a bathtub, with no memory of his life or how he got where he was. Needless to say, what happened to the dead woman next to his bed. After a few clues that seem to trigger brief glimpses of his childhood, he is chased from his room by three odd looking figures, looking for him.
As Murdoch wanders the city, trying to find his identity, we learn that not only are the strange people (who are appropriately named The Strangers) looking for Mr. Murdoch, but a police officer named Bumstead is as well, searching for the killer of not just the woman in the apartment, but six other women who were murdered in the same manner as the woman from Murdoch's room. Also is Murdoch's estranged wife, who is trying to make a reconciliation with him after a falling out. Even a therapist that Murdoch has been seeing because of his wife's infidelity is searching for him as well. Everyone seems to have their own reason to be searching for Murdoch, and Murdoch is trying to figure out why, since he has no clue as to who he is. In a sense, Murdoch's quest becomes a search for identity in a world that is trying to label him. Is he a murderer, is he a jilted lover, is he psychologically damaged person, or is he a like the strangers who are pursuing him?
But that becomes the center question of Dark City itself, do we make up who we are or are we made up of experiences and memories? We realize this question when we realize the purpose of the Strangers' inhabitance of the city. They are actually aliens, whose race is dying out and they need to observe the human race to see what has made us thrive so much. So, we enter their experiment, which revolves around making the inhabitants of the city fall asleep at midnight while the strangers give them new lives by implanting new memories in them and changing the environment around them.
Murdoch also discovers that the reason the Strangers are coming after him is because he has developed an immunity to the experiment, not falling asleep when everyone else does. He has also begun to take on the traits of the strangers as well, gaining their power to "tune", which is the ability to alter their environment by will alone. This whole concept suggests two things, the first being that humanity has the ability to adapt and thrive in a new environment and the other is that as an individual, humans have the ability to shape their world to their own desire once they are fully aware of themselves and their desires.
The movie in itself is a brilliant commentary on our society as a whole which is displayed in the beginning with Dr. Schreber's rat experiment in the lab, which comes to symbolize a smaller scale version of the strangers' experiment for us, putting rats (humans) in a maze of a city (life) and seeing if they can find their way. Which also seems to suggest that as a society, we are merely just rats in a maze, wandering around until we come to the end. The strangers' insistence on doing everything as a group also brings up another interesting point about the human race is that our ability to be individuals is what makes humans thrive rather than conformity and similarity. "Dark City" takes such bold and brilliant concepts, suggesting so much about our society as a whole and even the importance of individuality over conformity. The themes, once read into, take on such a strong and complex turn, unheard of in most science fiction films of recent years.
Then there is the matter of the setting itself, for no science fiction film can be complete without a strong and symbolic setting. The setting is vast and detailed, and this isn't just the city, which is a sight to behold in itself. The underground world of the strangers themselves is claustrophobic, atmospheric, and actually is the most alien in architecture, suggesting a twisted, surrealistic world, yet one that is dependent on the world above them. The city above ground displays a rich noir feel in which one feels that there is something sinister lurking underneath it's surface. Even the blending of the time periods, seeing 30s architecture around 60s cars driven by people in 50s suits is even a hint off that the city has been fabricated out of different eras and pasts as one of the strangers even seems to suggest.
"Dark City" is a film rich in ideas, concepts, visual splendor, and atmosphere. It's the kind of film that one seems to enjoy being lost in, despite the danger that lurks in it's atmosphere. It's a film that reassures it's viewers that a strong understanding of oneself and staying true to yourself that one can conquer any world they are placed in. And as I, Robot approaches, one can only hope that lightning can strike twice with Proyas and his unique blend of visual grandeur and his depth will emerge and be embraced by a larger audience, who might seek out this film.