Akira meets the first Matrix.

Rating: 8/10 (13 July 2006)

Dark City holds the ideas of a great innovative sci-fi that could've been a masterpiece for its time. Unfortunately the movie falls short in a few areas making it a mostly decent sci-fi. The first 10min of the movie give us the monologue of a traitor and the awakening of the main character, John Murdoch. John has no idea who he is or where he is, all he knows is that there's a dead call girl in his room and it's time for him to split. Don't let this mislead you into thinking the entire movie is fast paced, truth is, it's just as "stop-go" as a Penzoil commercial. The Strangers however, the group hunting John, are a harrowing race of people that you'd think would appear in a Marylin Manson video. The Strangers have the ability to "tune" which allows them to alter reality around them. Unfortunately they don't use their powers too often to try and stop John. Watching this only kept reminding me of the mysteries of the first Matrix movie and the anime masterpiece Akria in which the character Tetsuo tapped into his psychic powers. If you've seen both Akria and the Matrix you'll likely enjoy Dark City, if you haven't I suggest checking out those before you see this.