Dark City

"The Empire Strikes Back," "Blade Runner," "2001: A Space Odyssey," and "The Matrix" will always be the films against which I judge other science fiction films. Besides "Equilibrium," "Gattaca," "The Fifth Element," "Minority Report," "Children of Men," and "Alien," few sci-fi films have reached close to the pinnacle of being original, intense, thought provoking, and above all, make fantasy seem like reality and suck you in to the point where nothing else matters for two hours (which my favorites have done for me and all great films should). I hope we've emerged from sci-fi purgatory in 2009 with the enjoyable "Star Trek" reimagining, but the two films which really rose above all else and matched and exceeded my expectations for science fiction were "Moon" and "District 9." I could sing the praises for both of those films endlessly, but that's not what I'm trying to do here.

"Dark City" came out a year before "The Matrix," and as "The Matrix" was the first film I ever saw on DVD (at a friend's house) and recognizing the fact that I didn't have a TV of my own or cable internet until 2002, all "Dark City" ever was to me was a movie in the bargain bin at Best Buy with an unknown male lead and a creepy, indistinguishable cover. The only thing that led to me even watching it tonight was the fact that I saw it had been re-released on BluRay, with a director's cut special edition 15 minutes longer than the original cut. Anytime I see a studio has enough faith in an obscure 1990s film to re-release it on BluRay AND allow the director to recognize his/her own complete, original vision there must be SOMETHING to that film. "Dark City" was a box office flop, yet Roger Ebert called it the best film of the year when it came out in 1998.

The sets, props, and special effects immediately drew me in as a viewer. A sweeping view of outer space pans down to reveal a major city at night, and then Keifer Sutherland appears as a mysterious figure with a disfigured eye and a limp, and when he speaks for the first time his breathless stutter immediately causes you to forget this is the same man who plays Jack Bauer. A man wakes up naked in a bathtub, and receives a phone call. And thus the film begins...

You have absolutely no damn idea where this city is or who these people are or what the plot of the film is for the first 20 minutes, and then the clues and inklings begin to fall, and then an event occurs which must have been the origins of the phrase "what the fuck???"

All the characters keep moving and searching and striving for clues and answers and you as the viewer are propelled through this amazing landscape with them following an original story with unconventional characters and amazing ideas and questions about the nature of human identity and the soul... Sutherland, a beautiful and amazingly talented singer Jennifer Connelly, the always brilliant William Hurt embody their characters. The film is so well made and well written that you don't dismiss a single second as "just Hollywood." And maybe, just maybe, when the action pauses and you get some semblance of an explanation around 80 minutes into this 110 minute film about who is who and what the aims of all the characters and parties involved are... BUT that point in the film is SO far from the climax and "reveals" of the true secrets and eventual finale that... BAH!!!

I certainly don't want to say that this is the best science fiction film ever made... but it has to be one of THE best. And better than being one of the best, it is SO original and mind-bending and exciting that few movies allow my cynical, jaded, and bored imagination to take off and be set free for two hours as "Dark City" was able to do.