___________ DARK CITY A Film By Alex Proyas
Reviewed By Christian MacInnis
Upon arriving at the theater during the opening credits, I took my seat and prepared myself for what appeared to be "Hellraiser meets The Crow". But as soon as Kiefer Sutherland began speaking the narrative monologue, describing "The Strangers" and their reasons for contacting human beings, I was hooked.
There was something especially compelling about the nature of his voice. I knew from the start that I was going to witness the actions of his character rather than the actor attempting the character. Sutherland played the role as a true veteran. Upon the completion of his monologue, the camera arrives on Sutherland in such a fashion that you can only wonder how long Alex Proyas spent on cinematography. I would imagine, for a film of this caliber, that maximum hours of work were spent where they were needed the most. The film flowed beautifully.
As I was being taken through the intricate regions of the "Dark City", a clever plot began to unravel, to the point where the last time I had seen such clever plot twists were in "The Usual Suspects". Not to mention a series of special effects that would make James Cameron literally turn green with envy.
But if you're not exactly the biggest sci-fi fan, caveat emptor. Get ready for the atmostpheric darkness of "12 Monkeys" or "The Crow" without the boredom or depression. The concept of the plot is as mindstretching as "12 Monkeys" was, however, so be prepared and be sophisticated. And imagine a picture that finally does justice to the comic-book-gone-feature-film fad that Hollywood has recently become abusive of. DARK CITY simply puts "Spawn" to shame. In fact, during the climax of the film I couldn't help but feel the strong presence of an "Akira"-esque explosion throughout the general feeling of the movie. So my initial predictions were wrong. This film is anything but the meloncholy of "Hellraiser" parts one through five.
I'm never one to base a film entirly on special effects, so know that when I give DARK CITY
****1/2 (out of *****)
it's actually because the film contained all of the neccessary ingredients to keep me entertained and awake from storyline to plot twists to camerawork to even (tsk, tsk) special effects. Not since Contact have I recieved such deep insight into the way the human mind operates and never this year have I been so blown away. The best film I've seen all year, and easily one of the best I've ever seen
Christian MacInnis
Review ©1998 Christian L. MacInnis
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