Love it or hate it type thing

Rating: 9/10 (3 August 2000)

Judging by the biggish stack of comments this has already received it's clearly a love or hate experience, and I was quite ready to go either way. I'm glad to say I fell pretty much into the love it camp; it has some flaws but has some pretty impressive stuff going on to make up for them. It really is a curious blend of genres, combining influences from lots of previous works and genres. The look of the thing mixes City of the Lost Children with Soderburgh's Kafka, with a bit of Brazil and Gattaca thrown in; the mood is also a bit Kafka-y, noirish and muted, especially Hurt's slow-talking copper. The special effects of the twisting city are incredible, I would love to have seen it on a big screen instead of a battered old video tape that made it even darker than intended. The story is quite gripping too, some clever ideas strung together nicely to make a genuinely nightmarish world. It is occasionally let down by cheesy, cliched dialogue and the odd wobbly performance, though most of the leads acquit themselves well and the script is perhaps deliberately weirded due to the weirding effects of the weird city.

Comparisons to the Matrix are easy and obvious, and there are a lot of parallels, but each film has it's own strengths. This film has no scene as powerful as the boy Keanu sitting up in his bowl of goop and realising what's happened to humanity, and no sense that the "special powers" are merely enhanced perception and understanding; the "Tuning" here is purely a magical gift, underexplained and underutilised. However, the Matrix is no match for the mood of restrained creepiness of the Dark City; where Matrix world was pretty normal and happy, this place is black and twisted, the minds of its inhabitants messed up and perpetually bemused and vague. Where the Matrix has shocks and speedily-resolved tension, this has an all-pervading feeling of dread and confusion that just won't go away.
Rufus Sewell is good in the lead role, at least until the rather unconvincing climax, and Richard O'Brien, Ian Richardson et al are sufficiently spooky as the baddies; Kiefer Sutherland's Doctor I'm still not sure about, but the scene near the end where he describes his pact with the Strangers is one of the film's most powerful. Overall, you'll probably love it if you like retro-noir sci-fi, mind-altering horror or Angel from Home&Away, otherwise, you should probably watch it anyway, even if just for those amazing visuals.