Dark City (1998)
Directed by Alex Proyas
A man struggles with memories of his past, including a wife he cannot remember, in a nightmarish world with no sun and run by beings with telekinetic powers who seek the souls of humans.
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20 films that influenced Dark City
What critics say influenced Dark City
Before the film is half over he manages to evoke memories of "Blade Runner," the Gotham of Tim Burton's "Batman," Fritz Lang's "Metropolis," and assorted images from David Cronenberg and Terry Gilliam.
There are chases and confrontations, as well as gorgeous and elaborate set design, including a subterranean fortress that looks inspired (like so many movies) by Fritz Lang's Metropolis , but the movie isn't a patchwork thriller.
When it first came out in 1998, I thought it was a little too derivative of the aforementioned "Blade Runner" as well as its biggest inspiration, Fritz Lang's classic "Metropolis."
Stirred by the visionary power of " Dark City ," I revisited Fritz Lang 's "Metropolis" and once again fell under its eerie spell.
Such results have proved repetitive in the cinema, especially for pictures that have followed "Metropolis"s way of thinking (most recently with Alex Proyas' "Dark City").
This bizarre un-reality -- an amalgam of Gothic architecture, '50s costumes, "Metropolis"-inspired art direction and film noir technique -- is the creation of writer-director Alex Proyas ("The Crow"), who successfully draws his audience into this uncomfortable world.
The setting is a rainy big city where everyone feels trapped and the sun never seems to shine - like the costumes and general downbeat atmosphere, it's borrowed from classic film noir, but there is futuristic machinery, in the manner of Gilliam's "Brazil."
More glaring than plot faults, though, is the obvious theft of imagery from the films of German director Fritz Lang, as well as some nods to "Brazil" and the French fantasy "The City of Lost Children," all of which are superior to this muddled mess.
Proyas' overwrought MTV camera jitters tend to highlight characterisation that's two dimensional even by comic book standards, and the film can't stand the inevitable comparisons with Blade Runner or Brazil.
Line up the other recent candidates, which include Tim Burton's Batman, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner , Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro's Delicatessan and The City of Lost Children , and Terry Gilliam's Brazil , and Dark City equals or bests them all.
"Dark City" looks like bits and pieces of "Blade Runner," "Batman," "Hellraiser," "Phantasm," "Brazil," and director Alex Proyas's own previous film, "The Crow," with the added glumness of "Dune" thrown in for good measure.
Think of a loud, unimaginably confused (visually as well as narratively) "Brazil" with absolutely no sense of humor, and you'll get the general idea.
On the way is a small hit squad of supernatural psycho-terrorists called The Strangers, inevitably compared to Hellraiser's Pinhead, but more comfortably head-geared in black fedoras.
Moments before the black-clad, beetle-browed Strangers, a Hellraiser-like cabal with names like Mr. Quick and Mr. Hand who are clearly up to no good, show up to deal with him, Murdoch slips away, finds his wallet, and begins to track down what might be his past.
"Dark City" looks like bits and pieces of "Blade Runner," "Batman," "Hellraiser," "Phantasm," "Brazil," and director Alex Proyas's own previous film, "The Crow," with the added glumness of "Dune" thrown in for good measure.
Film lovers will find that Dark City is overflowing with references to classic pictures -- everything from the silent Dracula adaptation, Nosferatu , to Hitchcock's masterful Vertigo .
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More glaring than plot faults, though, is the obvious theft of imagery from the films of German director Fritz Lang, as well as some nods to "Brazil" and the French fantasy "The City of Lost Children," all of which are superior to this muddled mess.
Line up the other recent candidates, which include Tim Burton's Batman, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner , Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro's Delicatessan and The City of Lost Children , and Terry Gilliam's Brazil , and Dark City equals or bests them all.
The notion achieved perhaps its purest form in Alex Proyas' Dark City, a film which -- like Blade Runner -- took some time to find its audience.
Like "Blade Runner,'' it imagines a city of the future.
Before the film is half over he manages to evoke memories of "Blade Runner," the Gotham of Tim Burton's "Batman," Fritz Lang's "Metropolis," and assorted images from David Cronenberg and Terry Gilliam.
Proyas must have seen every film noir ever made at least twice, from "M" to "L.A. Confidential," with stops in between for everything from "The Big Heat" to "Blade Runner," and it shows.
Proyas' overwrought MTV camera jitters tend to highlight characterisation that's two dimensional even by comic book standards, and the film can't stand the inevitable comparisons with Blade Runner or Brazil.
Line up the other recent candidates, which include Tim Burton's Batman, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner , Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro's Delicatessan and The City of Lost Children , and Terry Gilliam's Brazil , and Dark City equals or bests them all.
Proyas must have seen every film noir ever made at least twice, from "M" to "L.A. Confidential," with stops in between for everything from "The Big Heat" to "Blade Runner," and it shows.
A few more ambitious and serious sci-fi films have also followed in the footsteps of "Alien," notably the well-made "Aliens" (1986) and " Dark City " (1998).
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It is a fantastic altering of reality, but only one man sees it, John Murdock (Rufus Sewell, of the 1996 version of "Hamlet" and "Carrington").
Dark City has a bluesy soul that fits with its depiction of the universal desire for home, identity, and peace, and Proyas’ elegantly fluid direction – marking a significant leap forward from his noir-ish work on The Crow – accentuates the film’s unsettling depiction of reality as elusive and ephemeral.
Dark City is a fuller picture than director Alex Proyas' previous film The Crow, but that does not mean that the new film is necessarily more satisfying in every respect.
This bizarre un-reality -- an amalgam of Gothic architecture, '50s costumes, "Metropolis"-inspired art direction and film noir technique -- is the creation of writer-director Alex Proyas ("The Crow"), who successfully draws his audience into this uncomfortable world.
Dark City was directed and co-written by Alex Proyas, who created another unique world in The Crow.
Proyas directed "The Crow'' (1994), the visually inspired film that was almost doomed when its star, Brandon Lee , was killed in an accident.
Australian director Alex Proyas ( "The Crow" ) succeeds in doing that, and his enthusiasm is infectious.