Simply Marvellous!

Rating: 10/10 (6 October 2008)

In the genre of the those movies that deal with issues in Metaphysics, this is among the best movies I have ever seen. Alex Proyas proves himself to be a wonderful director assembling a cast and creating a world that simply is so captivating. The Matrix and Thirteenth Floor are two other movies that deal with similar issues. While Thirteenth Floor addresses more on the question of what can be considered to be real, the Matrix is more of an all round package addressing multiple questions, this movie Dark City beautifully drives a nail in the coffin of the concept of Tabula Rasa.
Tabula Rasa means a blank slate. Many philosophers have proposed that we come into this world with our minds like a Tabula Rasa i.e. a blank slate on which the world writes down impressions. These impressions then define our personalities and eventually, our soul. The movie Dark City is about a race called Strangers who are manipulating the world in order to understand the human soul. They want to find out what is it that constitutes the soul and how it works. They've created a city which they change by telekinesis every midnight. They have a human doctor who is a psychiatrist with whose help they manipulate memories of individuals and study their behavior hoping to find the human soul or consciousness.
The movie straight away jumps to the central character John Murdoch played wonderfully by Rufus Sewell. He finds himself a stranger to the world around him and just as we all do, he is compelled to investigate the nature of his world. He eventually discovers the startling truth that the world he lives in is but a manufactured one controlled by the strange beings known only as the Strangers. Soon, John discovers that he has their powers and can hence ensure that the world is free of them.
The movie works wonderfully. It keeps you to the edge of your seats and makes you open your ears for scouting each and every word being said. And careful you should be, for a lapse in hearing or noticing something will cause the movie to become incomprehensible. The movie can best be summed by the following dialog said by John Murdoch : "You were searching for the human soul but (pointing to his head), you were searching in the wrong place."