Visually extravagant but its narrative is a complete mess

Rating: Null/10 (30 January 2006)

I was very excited to see "Dark City" because most film buffs claimed it was better than "The Matrix" and a nice homage to German expressionist films of the early 20th Century. Unfortunately, I was less impressed.
How Roger Ebert can hail this and lambaste "Brazil" is beyond me, since they both achieve a status of visionary excellence. The style and exuberant qualities of "Dark City" are extraordinary - it was the plot that left me cold. I couldn't get into it, nor could I take it very seriously at all.
The acting is okay, but Sutherland is way over-the-top (I guess it's appropriate given the context of the movie). I just had a bit of a hard time warming up to a movie involving alien species involved in corrupt conspiracies related to dystopian realities, etc. I've seen it done just one too many times now, and the plot of the film offered nothing fresh as far as I was concerned.
Overall? Pretty to look at. Not much else is happening, though.