Like the Matrix, but different. Also like Total Recall, but also different.

Rating: 10/10 (19 August 2000)

I don't see what all the deal is about between this and The Matrix is. Certainly, there are superficial differences (a controlled world, manipulated by godlike nonhuman entities, inhabited by people ignorant of their true situation. And one person with special powers discovers the truth and can free the population). Maybe that's a little more than superficial. Even so, I have never seriously considered this to be similar to The Matrix. Their styles are far too different for that. Anyway...
On a deeper level, I'd say that Dark City is closer to Total Recall than The Matrix (possible Dark City and Total Recall spoilers ahead). Both deal with memories (specifically, implanted memories,) and how memories affect and shape our identities. However, there is a fundamental difference in the philosophies of the movies. In Total Recall, when Hauser is implanted with a new memory, he becomes Quaid, a different person with a different personality due to the different experiences that he has been through. In Dark City, Murdoch is Murdoch, even when his memories have been changed, or erased. His soul is the same, no matter how many times his mind has been messed with. I suppose I could take this a step further and say that the difference is that Total Recall regards a person as a product of the mind, while Dark City regards a person as a product of the soul, but I would say that at the risk of reading too far into the movie. I'll leave that to you.
As far as style and execution are concerned, I don't have anything to say that hasn't already been said, so I won't say anything. I will say that I enjoyed Dark City very much, and it deserves a spot as one of the finest fantasy movies ever made (it's not sci-fi: sci-fi has a foundation in science; Dark City's only science is Dr. Schreber's constructions, which is not really science (mixing memories in a petri dish?), and all the powers of The Strangers and Murdoch are mystical and unexplained).
See it. Even if you don't enjoy it, it will give you something to think about for a little while.