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Dark City (1998)

Rate: 1
Viewed: 1/03, 7/04, 2/25

DarkCity
2/25: Dark City has always deserved '1'.

It's an all-time bad movie. None of the concepts is original as they're rip-offs from Total Recall, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Truman Show, Blade Runner, and Hellraiser with a faux neo-noir look. Alternate reality? That's Philip K. Dick stuff. I would've been okay with it had the writing been more sensible and the editing normal, but neither happened.

There's a minute or two to explain what the whole thing is all about, and the rest of it is just pure rubbish in a city that's constantly empty sans the traffic. On the other hand, the editing is awful, and I can't believe it was done by Dov Hoenig because he did Heat, The Fugitive, The Last of the Mohicans, and Manhunter. Every sequence of shots is 70% complete before moving on to the next one, making it hard for me to absorb Dark City as a whole. Unsurprisingly, he did one more film before retiring.

I think the special effects caused people to overrate Dark City like how it happened with The Matrix. But that alone can't be enough. Nearly no film ever makes it without a good script. Once this is established, there's no hope anymore, regardless of how beautiful the cinematography is or how dazzling the special effects are.

If there's a textbook definition of thespians mailing their performances in, this is it. Watch how little Rufus Sewell changes it up. Jennifer Connelly has always been the same since the start of her acting career. William Hurt's days of being A-list actor ceased during the late 80's. Kiefer Sutherland tries but ends up looking ridiculously miscast, and he attempts to achieve some "depth" with his partially covered eye. To his credit, he thought the script was sent to him by mistake, thinking it was meant for his father.

All in all, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Blade Runner had already been there first, so why must there be Dark City?