Untied laces

Rating: 6/10 (12 July 2007)

Though some may consider it the "be-all, end-all" sci-fi flick, "Dark City"--while an interesting existential meditation on creation--is a remarkably cold piece of work. Granted, it's a beautifully-conceived piece of work, brimming with intelligence and intrigue (probably the reason it bombed at the box office), but its philosophy is unsupported by its characters who, no matter how integral to the plot, remain paper-thin ciphers from start to finish (making the main character an amnesiac shouldn't have exempted the screenwriters from throwing a few emotions into the role). This is unfortunate, since "Dark City" is a fine film on its own, with some good eye candy and interesting ideas: an alien race known as "The Strangers" has created a world (with a heavy 1940s Noir look) wherein they tinker with the identities of the inhabitants in an attempt to discover what, exactly, makes human beings such a unique breed; they are also able to alter material reality through sheer will. Richard O'Brien (Riff Raff!) stands out as a key Stranger, but the humans are not quite earthbound--with the exception of Colin Friels (another amnesiac), who brings some much-needed, high-strung energy to the proceedings for a few minutes, bigger names like Rufus Sewell, Jennifer Connelly, and William Hurt are left stranded in the mechanical script, while Kiefer Sutherland invokes Quasimodo. As a mainstream entertainment, "Dark City" does what is expected while clarifying as much as possible for the average film-goer--however, I wound up wishing the emotional and intellectual aspects had been pushed further.