Aliens vs. Humans, and logic is the loser

Rating: 5/10 (1 October 2006)

Going into a science fiction film, viewers should expect to suspend a good deal of their disbelief. For instance, if something in the movie defies the laws of physics, we can just assume that, in this particular universe, those laws don't apply. Nevertheless a science fiction film must make sense given its own reality. And that's where "Dark City" falters.
The premise is that a bunch of aliens ("the Strangers") are studying a group of humans so they can ... well, so they can do something, I'm not sure what. The Strangers can "tune," i.e. alter reality at will (I'm not giving anything away here -- that point is mentioned in the opening titles). As it happens, one of the humans in their experiment, John Murdoch, can also "tune." The movie, then, is the story of the Strangers' attempts to capture or kill Murdoch (they're never quite sure what they want to do with him) while trying to complete their experiment so they can ... oh, I don't know, rule the world or something.
Murdoch runs around, attempting to avoid both the Strangers and William Hurt, the accordion-playing detective who thinks Murdoch is a murderer, while simultaneously trying to figure out who he is because he can't remember anything. Fortunately for him, the Strangers sent to capture/kill Murdoch keep trying to stab him or hit him with blunt objects or do something else very conventional, forgetting the simple fact that THEY CAN ALTER REALITY AT WILL! (jeez, didn't they read the opening titles?). Had the Strangers remembered this salient fact, they could have captured Murdoch within the first five minutes of the film (Murdoch only gradually realizes the extent of his "tuning" powers, so he would have been easy to capture/kill/whatever early on).
On its own terms, therefore, "Dark City" doesn't make any sense. After all, the Strangers can make skyscrapers pop out of the ground like dandelions, so why can't they manage to catch a single human? (they also have to rely on some kind of hypodermic injection to alter people's memories -- why don't they just "tune" those as well?) That's just the most annoying unanswered question in the film. Others involve the casting of Kiefer Sutherland (what were the producers thinking?) and the origins of Murdoch (who is this human who can "tune" -- how did that happen?).
Apart from Sutherland, the performances are good, although Jennifer Connelly is woefully underused. The set design is quite good, and the special effects are effective, if not overwhelming. The writing, however, is, at times, laughably bad, even by sci fi film standards. The best line in the film goes to William Hurt, who, referring to his beloved accordion, says: "It was a gift from my mother. She died recently. I keep it with me to remind me of her." Good thing she didn't give you a piano, eh Bill?
Oh, and one more unanswered question: where did all these people come from that inhabit the dark city? Actually, the answer to that one is hinted at in the film: they're all dead. Ooooh, spooky!