DARK CITY
Release Date: February 27, 1998 Starring: Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, Richard O'Brien, Ian Richardson, William Hurt Directed by: Alex Proyas Distributed by: New Line Cinema MPAA Rating: R (violent images, some sexuality) URL: http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio/reviews/1998/darkcity.htm
Originality is probably the most advantageous as well as the most detrimental component of any new movie. It's been proposed that the American cinema audiences are being "dumbed down" by the senseless violence, almost unrestricted sexuality, and blatant disregard for high culture of any kind. Naturally, then, ingesting an intriguing and original plot is going to be a tough meal. However, if one can sit up in the theater and throw themself whole-heartedly at the mercy of the director and the cast, one is bound to hear a good story once and awhile. DARK CITY, by far the most original and probably the best movie I have seen this year, is that good story.
The intellectual science fiction isn't anything new - it's the same thinking man's movie as CONTACT and GATTACA. But Director Alex Proyas isn't content to let DARK CITY fall to the doldrums of meaningless sci-fi. There's one problem with that - he's got to keep the audience's attention. His answer: suspense and niblets of tense action. Kudos to both he and the scriptwriter for nimbly mixing watchable action sequences in with one drawn-out, suspensefully-orchestrated plot. The weirdness that is the atmosphere for that plot is sure to deter some - I can't say I don't prefer Jodie Foster in CONTACT to Rufus Sewell here - but as film critic James Berardinelli said of this movie, it can't suffer from too much atmosphere.
The plot that inhabits said atmosphere is a what-if scenario. As many bright minds have previously philosophied, imagine your world exists on the thumbnail of a giant. Imagine that you are nothing but an experiment in the test tube of an omnipotent alchemist. In this case, John Murdoch (Sewell) lives in a world that's being run by the Strangers - a strange breed whose name is aptly chosen. Headed up by respectable performances by Richard O'Brien and Ian Richardson, their goal is to study the human race in the confines of a city they have created. Their motive is to learn to harness the power of the human soul as a vehicle for themselves, for their world is dying and they need a new existence. Most humans fall prey to their all-powerful telepathy, but Murdoch is immune and hence must be killed - even as he struggles to figure out the Strangers' esoteric world.
The plot is contained nicely and well-generated given the setting. Several movies have suffered because their settings were too dark and enclosed to offer much watchability. In DARK CITY, on the other hand, by the time Sewell has stepped into the sunlight in the final scene, the audience feels an undescribable awe at the power of sunlight. One of DARK CITY's plot facets was the absence of day, which seems as unreal to the audience as it does to the characters. The characters are drawn up in clear opposition of each other - good and bad are immediately decided by the audience - and my only complaint is that some of the characters have little substance and no motivation. Other than that, DARK CITY is sure to be one of the year's more memorable titles, and is recommendable to most everyone.
FINAL AWARD FOR "DARK CITY": 3.0 stars - a good movie. -- Craig Roush kinnopio@execpc.com -- Kinnopio's Movie Reviews http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio
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