One of the darkest stories ever told on movies

Rating: 9/10 (10 August 1999)

Well, dark may be, but not violent. This is one of the strangest tales I´ve ever seen produced by the movie industry. It´s not of those flashy works that Hollywood seems so proud to give birth to again and again. It´s complex enough and has an atmosphere very similar to that which we find in Hitchcock´s films and Blade Runner.
And once again, like in The Matrix, things are not what they appear to be. Kind of resembles the work produced by master science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick. In Dark City, you just wait, follow the hero, collect the information (well given) and mistrust what your eyes and conscious thoughts tell you.
Dark City was not a huge success, but that, ironically, constitutes proof that it is a strange but good movie. Nowadays, most people, irrespective of their location in the world (USA, Europe, Asia), seem to be more at ease when they go to the cinema to see something like ID4 or Armaggedon than when they face a treasure like Dark City, Blade Runner or The Matrix. They complain (even critics) that these movies are too complicated or too subtle to be seen and understood in mere two hours. Talk about dramatic drops in IQ ratings...
The special effects of Dark City are good enough and give credibility to the story. The plot could be more complex (as happens with The Matrix), but Hollywood standards demand that you, as director, should not make people think too much while watching the movie...or else...spectators will shy away from the movie.
The acting is good. Rufus Sewell is good, Kiefer S. is even better, and mr. Hurt portrays an inspector with a rather grey life in a low profile personal performance. The strange "Men in Black Overcoats" are really disgusting and scary to look at.
The finale should have been more...bigger-than-life, one of those events that make you think about it long after you see it.
I bought the video and watch it with delight, although I didn´t go to the cinema 4 times to see it, as happened with The Matrix and Blade Runner.
All in all, a good movie, different, where the director had the guts to tell a story at a pace and in a way that most movies released nowadays will not show.