"First came darkness, then came the strangers. " - Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland)

Rating: 8/10 (8 November 2005)

After hearing so much praise about one-hit wonder Alex Proyas' (The Crowe) film 'Dark City' I decided I had to rent it. I remember seeing parts of it when it first came out and neither my family or I could get into it. Well, after watching it in full now, I can certainly appreciate the craft that went into making 'Dark City'. Usually when one sees Sci-Fi movies they have pretty "uh" expectations - a) a sub-standard plot; b) a bunch of mindless uninventive dialogue; c) cool special effects; d) formulaic and tiresome directing; and e) dreadful and hammy acting. But, for some reason 'Dark City' has a leg up on all those qualities. First off, the plot is familiar but it has never been done or expressed so well. Alex Proyas screenplay does a perfect job getting us in the mindset of the film and so does his eye-popping direction. The dialogue is quick and funny with great one-liners from William Hurt and the strangers. The special effects are awesome and the acting is not what you would expect in a science fiction film. Unlike a poor lead performance by Keanu 'I suck at acting and am a retard' Reeves in 'The Matrix' (which by the way was an outstanding picture), 'Dark City' boasts strong performances from such demanding and well-respected actors such as Kiefer Sutherland (24, A Few Good Men), Oscar Nominee Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind, Requiem for a Dream) and Oscar Winner William Hurt (A History of Violence, Kiss of the Spider Woman), and it also has a great lead performance from a not-as-well-known or respected actor, Rufus Sewell (Bless the Child).
'Dark City' is a delightfully grim film that has some neat aspects. I loved the dark setting and the unreal and out-of-time era reminded me of this year's smash hit 'Sin City'. The bad-guys, strangers or aliens are also very neat. They dress like 1920s mafia hit-man and speak in super grammatically correct English accents and have pale vampire-like complexions. The leader of them is played by British film actor veteran Ian Richardson, and you may recognize Richard O'Brien (who played Riff-Raff in Rocky Horror Picture Show and wrote the music/lyrics to it) as the nasty stranger who takes the place as the film's central villain. My only qualm with 'Dark City' is it's unnecessary 'R' rating. The film has no language, mild violence, no sex, but just a very brief scene of nudity. Cmon, people! 'Titanic' had a longer scene of nudity and it managed to slide away squeaky clean with a 'PG-13'. 'Dark City' is a perfect example of the MPAA taking favorites with historical or mock-historical movies over actually better movies and a hell of a lot more creative movies like 'Dark City'. Anyway, that just ticks me off because the R-rating makes 'Dark City' seem crude or extremely violent, but it isn't in any respect.
All in all, 'Dark City' is a big step up for the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre. It isn't a masterpiece and has it's flaws (it dragged it's final ten minutes), but it is outstanding for what it is -- a Sci-Fi movie. I recommend this for any action/fantasy movie fans or anyone wanting an escape from all the tiredly mainstream motion pictures. 'Dark City' is a feast for the eyes. Grade: B+