Dark City (1998)

I don’t want to go into a lot of details about the plot of Dark City except for the absolute basics; John Murdoch wakes up in a bathtub and realizes that reality isn’t real. Memories are false. The best way to describe life is as a series of ideas that have been injected into people’s heads.

Obviously this movie is pretty heavy, conceptually speaking. I like that it plays with ideas of memory, experience, and “reality.” I find the theories Dark City proposes thought provoking. Not earth-shatteringly interesting—just intriguing enough to produce a couple “hm” moments. The story itself is more than a bit cheesy. The acting does not help to reduce this cheesiness.

However, what bothers me more about Dark City is that despite being made in 1998 it still feels uncannily as if it sprang from the 1980’s. The effects are pretty hokey, even for that year. At first I thought “Oh this has a really nice style to it—very neo noir a la Blade Runner, mixed with the expected eighties aesthetics.” Eighties aesthetics are appropriate (albeit silly) when they come from 1983. Not so much 15 years later.

Overall, I'd say that the best way to describe Dark City is that it dances along the fine line between interesting and ridiculous. You’ll have to decide which side it ends up on for you.

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The Wolfman!