Everything that Matrix should have been.

Rating: Null/10 (24 August 1999)

If there was a thing i truly hated in Matrix, was that everything really important from the plot was revealed in the presentation movie trailer. We even got more than a clue that "our" reality was an illusion and the true reality was somewhere in a future world. So what was left to discover after that ? Not much, except for more details on what we have guessed from the trailer. Then, all that was left in Matrix, were chases, fights, predictable treasons, more chases and more fights. It seemed like someone in Hollywood was afraid that the american audiences might not understood what was the plot and decided to give away the whole idea in the trailer. Someone in Hollywood was probably scared of having another DARK CITY and then people wouldn´t come to watch another "very complicated" story.
It might sound strange, for me to begin my review of DARK CITY, reviewing Matrix, but this is just to say, how good DARK CITY is. In here we have to keep thinking through out the movie, altough the story is not at all that complicated, in fact by the end it´s very simple. But this movie manages to create a fantastic mistery atmosphere untill everything is revealed. Instead of chases and fighting scenes all the time, this movie gives us small clues, and we spend the whole movie guessing what might happen next and thinking in all the possibilities, contrary to Matrix in all that we are presented with is just more action.
Slow, ok, this is a slow movie, wich for a special effects film is something very peculiar and diferent. The effects are here to serve the story and not just to impress the audience. Something very rare in a Hollywood production these days.
Visualy DARK CITY is beautiful. Almost as beautiful as the french masterpiece CITY OF THE LOST CHILDREN. I bet Alex Proyas did see this french movie and got inspiration from it to make DARK CITY. Wich isn´t a bad thing at all, because he did create a very unique film on its own. And the idea of that 40´s look is just great. I guess there is nothing bad i can say about DARK CITY. Probably the only minor thing is one of the last battles, wich look like they have come out of some MARVEL COMICS, but that´s ok. In one of the comments posted in IMDB, someone said that this movie was not good because it had no good villains. I guess this is a good example of how the general public is nowadays almost brainwashed by the fast-food Hollywood references and has a very dificult time to accept new ideas.
There is nothing wrong with DARK CITY. I even wished it was a bigger movie. I would love to see some director´s cut of this. And it has Jeniffer Conely in it. It seems that she knows how to choose her movies, because she´s great in this one. All the cast is, in fact. And i thought it was great to cast an unknown (at least to me) actor for the leading role, instead of a star. But i bet if Tom Cruise was in this instead of him, this would be a certain hit movie. Then again...People are afraid of thinking so i can´t be sure.
Watch DARK CITY with an open mind and be surprised. One of the Best and most original american sci-fi fantasy movies EVER.