Good but not that great.....I have some problems with some of it

Rating: 6/10 (14 February 2005)

Dark City starts out instantly grabbing your attention as John Murdoch wakes up in a dark bathroom in a bath tub with blood on his forehead. The lighting as well as the camera angles add to the mystery of what is happening even as John himself doesn't seem to know where he is or who he his. He looks around and finds a dead woman in the room, the phone rings and a man on the other end tells him he must leave immediately. After escaping from people who seem to be from another world and have the power to make people fall asleep he then goes about trying to find out what has happened. As the movie progresses he finds that he too has the powers that the other kind have. As you watch the movie a lot of questions go through your mind, but the writer does a good job in answering most of them. There are a few things that need to get cleared up however. The first of which is that I feel that if the world is to stop at midnight then it should just stop. Instead, the director has the people appear to just fall asleep. If this is happening one would think that more people would be asking more questions after they woke up on the ground or asleep at the wheel of their vehicle. Also, I feel the director should have included some type of TRUE love in John Murdoch and Jennifer Connelly's character. Instead it seems based on the fake memories that are given to them by the people from the other world. These are all minor problems that I found with the movie. My big problem that I have with Dark City is the final fight scene. How is one expected to believe that one man (John Murdoch), who has just assumed the other race's powers through what is told to be evolution due to the need of survival can fight off the entire race of the other kind? If his power is no greater than theirs, then they should be able to fight him easily. Instead, the director chooses to have a big fight scene between what appears to be their leader and John Murdoch. He chooses to make it look like some kind of mind concentration battle that came off a little corny in my opinion. If he was to defeat them it should've been done in a manor more consistent with a logical way for one man to beat an army. For example, after the final battle scene the leader, whom John Murdoch is fighting, is thrown into a water tower and water is sprayed all throughout the city killing the rest of the other kind since it is stated previously that they had a phobia to water. A more believable ending would be to throw out the corny fight scene and do just the water part. Aside from the final battle scene and the few other items I mentioned, I thought the director did do a good job. Other reviews that I have read seemed to agree with me, with many others also complaining about the final fight scene. The scenery and the world that they were truly in came together nicely. This movie offers an excellent plot with great visuals to go along with it.