Dark City

Dark City, an oft-mentioned sci-fi film by writer/director Alex Proyas (The Crow), is an odd creation that I am shocked to discover was made in 1998. With an overall sense of amateurishness and coloured by that undefinable but distinctly '80's sci-fi film style and appearance, I just assumed it was made shortly after Blade Runner by someone who thought that film was really cool and wanted to make their own noir dystopian flick but didn't actually understand why Blade Runner worked.

It's unfortunate, because at its core is an interesting story no one else has really explored on film: the idea that an alien hive mind not only knows it's a hive mind, but is deliberately trying to split itself in order to better its chances of survival. Unfortunately, Dark City buries that core deep under unsuccessful attempts at mystery. Appearing to have intentions (as its name suggests) of being a film noir, it opens with a man awakening in a hotel room accompanied by no memory, a dead body, and a pre-war New York aesthetic. He gets right down to searching for clues as to his identity, but of course is being pursued by both police and aliens who call themselves The Seekers and who can bend time and space. The problem is, the story wastes all its potential mystery and tension by not building a story to speak of, instead offering up boatloads of reveals too early and too often to make sense or have impact. Also bogged down by ridiculous villains, random nonsense (why do aliens who can kill with their minds pick knife fights? How did aliens allergic to both sunlight and water manage to harvest Earth in the first place? And other such intrigues.), and visuals that do nothing to support the story and seem to be entirely based on the idea that a films atmosphere can be created by setting alone, Dark City is a textbook case of what could have been.

Dark City would be worth watching if it were made when it looks like it was made, an earnest experiment in the early days of that sci-fi film style; as it is, it just comes across as something with either a misused sense of nostalgia or a refusal to learn and grow off of what came before. If you're hankering for something dark, mysterious, and sci-fi with a disturbing but coherent story that takes place in a stunning Art Deco city, go play BioShock.