Dark City

Written

Warning: This film review reveals some of the plot of the movie.

I liked this movie. I mean, I really liked this movie. I've watched it over a dozen times and each time I find something new to like.

Be warned, however, that Dark City is, well, dark. There is a thread of extreme hopelessness throughout the movie which "John", the hero, has to overcome. The people in this city are part of a vast experiment and they have just given up hope. They go from day to day (or, rather, from night to night since there is no "day" on this world) living with implanted memories. No one seems to be very happy, and given the nature of the experiment, that's totally understandable.

The movie opens with John in a bathtub without any memories. He cannot even remember his own name. There is the body of a dead woman in the room with him, and he has no idea how she got there. He runs from the room, knocking over a goldfish bowl while doing so. Briefly, he scoops up the fish from the floor and puts it into the toilet bowl.

It's details like these that make this movie a joy to watch. Little things, each part of the bigger puzzle. What's going on? It's a mystery story inside of a science fiction story inside of an action/adventure story. There is a touch of romance, barely, just enough to give a spark to the movie without overbearing it with something it does not need.

John runs from the apartment in terror, fearing he's killed a woman but at the same time not believing it. He stumbles across the city, slowly learning his name and gaining some details of his identity. However, John is puzzled to learn that his identity seems elusive and imaginary, as if it were made up on a whim. He's getting the pieces to the puzzle of who he is, but the pieces don't make any sense and the puzzle is fuzzy.

He quickly runs into some strange beings who have some kind of power over humans. The power to make them sleep, for example, and to change matter based upon a thought. They call this "tuning", and are surprised to learn tha John, a mere human, can tune as well.

Now we get introduced to another character, a psychiatrist. This guy is actually the person who the alien beings have forced to manipulate human memories. He wants to stop this game, and once he realizes that John has power (he can Tune), he begins, in a cowardly sort of way, to help him learn the truth.

The tapestry of this film is so full and rich that you could write a whole book about what's going on. It turns out that the whole city is a spaceship of some sort, where aliens have transplanted humans and change their memories, and their surroundings, on a nightly basis in order to find out more about this thing called a soul.

The effects are spectacular, especially the scenes of the entire city morphing from one form to another in a matter of minutes. The effects are not as in-your-face as those in "The Matrix", but they are very well done.

Speaking of The Matrix, I have read many articles which compare this movie to Dark City. There are many similarities between the two films. Dark City came first, and both are about a single hero, a super being who does not understand or even know about his own power until circumstances force it to be recognized. In fact, one of the paradoxes of both films is that if the antagonists simply left "the one" alone he would not have realized his power and nothing would have happened.

This film is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Be aware, though, that it's strange, dark and confusing right up until the end.