Dark City

Dark, dark and just dark again… Alex Proyas is amazing and his direction is very thought provoking, he bombards the viewer from the beginning to the very end with one dark shot after another, and I was so deeply depressed while watching that I almost managed to fall asleep. Dark City is visually impressive and very depressing; the last time I experienced similar feelings was during Blade Runner, except that here I was a little bored. At first, the story failed to engage me, but from the second half onwards, the plot builds up nicely and culminates in a successful duel (the way they hang in the air against each other reminded me of the final fight in The Matrix Revolutions). The ending itself is powerful and has a very cathartic effect. (17/11/2003)

Wow, that was a ride! Mix together Metropolis, P.K. Dick, Burton, Gilliam, the Coens, and maybe even The Matrix, add to that Proyas' ornate direction and Proyas' very, very bizarre script... And you get Dark City. It's a juicy treat for genre lovers, which I would probably recommend to Franz Kafka if he ever wants to come back from the grave to watch a movie. (23/07/2010)

If the Dark City was not consciously pointing out the proper noir atmosphere right from the beginning, I would almost say that the main character could have found the way to the beach on the Internet. While for us, travelling anywhere is nowadays a simple process, when with two clicks we can see not just the journey from the map’s position, but also the journey from the car driver’s position, in this film it formed the basis of the story. The film changed from noir crime film into a complete sci-fi in a split second. I thought that it is nice that in the nineties the American directors had balls to shoot similar movies. Nowadays, nobody would pay for it unless it had the stamp of Marvel or a remake. (04/04/2016)

Incredible. Proyas is an expert at bleak atmospheres, and this strange city hides a truly depressing secret. Almost all the actors are excellent but Kiefer Sutherland clearly reigns over them, and his doctor is very ambiguous throughout. Jennifer Connelly is again incredibly magical here. And yes, Dark City is quite similar to The Matrix. (29/06/2009)

Alex Proyas revels in the dark. He literally loves it. And he wants the viewer to love it too. This is not only the case with Dark City, but also with his other films. If there's a dawn breaking, it's more metaphorically, through enlightenment, change. This precursor to The Matrix offers another answer to what visions are presented to us and what a person can achieve. (13/10/2015)