Dark City

I rather like the film noir style. I had heard of the 1998 film Dark City but never got round to watching it before yesterday.

Loved by some, hated by others, Dark City is seen as the poor man’s Matrix, (released a year later), although personally I think Dark City is simply a better film.

Where the Matrix uses big special effects, Dark City is subtle. Sparingly using the effects, letting the philosophy and mystery draw you into this dark world of identity, humanity, suffering, and memory.

John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) wakes up in a bathtub in a hotel room with no memory. He is being sought by the police, who believe him to be a serial killer, a woman who claims to be his wife, and a group of mysterious men with psychokinetic powers. William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland, and the strangely sexy Jennifer Connelly are all fulfilling their roles as the 1940s noir stock-in-trade, meanwhile Richard O'Brien is doing possibly his most creepy bald man routine.

If you have seen Blade Runner and 12 Monkeys, and enjoyed both, then Dark City is a must. A dark sci-fi film that, (like Blade Runner), asks "what does it mean to be human" and as an encore "what is reality".

The Matrix is an action movie, dressed up as a sci-fi. Well there is more to science fiction than computers and robots. This is a truly original film, a sci-fi thriller, with a gritty film noir theme.

If you choose to take my recommendation, may I pass on one last piece of advice; the studio executives at New Line Cinema, requested that the movie begins with a voice-over narration that gives away several key plot twists. If choose to watch the film, mute the opening minutes, (until Keifer Sutherland's first on-screen appearance), and enjoy a noir film as it should be- a true mystery until the end.