Dark City: Review By Josh

Along with The Matrix and Gattaca, Dark City is one of the best sci-fi films of the 90's. Exploring such wieghty themes as human memory and identity and mind control, Dark City unfolds as a neo-noir detective story that becomes increasingly more complex as the pieces fall into place. It is both a Cartesian study of subjective reality and sort of Prometheus story about fighting arbitrary control. The ramifications of the film's ending are truly frightening, especially when you consider what the protagonist has essentially become.

The cast, score, and cinematography are fantastic, and Alex Proyas' directing is brilliantly dark. This film is clearly influenced by Fritz Lang's Metropolis and in turn clearly influenced the Matrix shortly thereafter. For a film that's over ten years old Dark City looks amazing, and not dated in the least; even if you don't buy the story it's a visual masterpiece at least.

See the director's cut; the theatrical release was polluted by studio interference, and isn't as good of a film.