Dark City

TerrorFirmer

Does everybody hold this movie in high regard? I watched it recently on the recommendations of both people I know and just generally huge positive opinion everywhere about it.

Now I wouldn't say it's a bad film, it's watchable, but I definately think it's average at best and not something I'd either particularly recommend to anyone else or ever watch again....

I was just expecting so much more really!

http://imdb.com/title/tt0118929/

Kingp35

Yeah Im off the same opinion as you. I heard great things about this so I thought I may as well give it a go. very forgettable stuff. I actually struggled to sit through it all if im honest and certainly wont be watching it again.

humanji

It's probably been built up too much and it came out a while ago, so the ideas don't seem as fresh now. Same thing happened when I finally got my mate to watch Star Wars. He couldn't believe people liked it.

monkeyfudge

I think it had a lot of potential. It wasn't a bad little concept and it was a nicely realised world... but it just didn't seem to go anywhere very interesting.

I enjoyed it a good deal when I saw it though... but I saw it when it first came out, so it was never built up for me.

Keifer Sutherland is terrible in it. It's like they couldn't get his dad to star in the film, so they had him play an old man instead.

Jennifer Connelly is very nice in it.

RE*AC*TOR

it hasn't aged well. but I do remember thinking at the time that the matrix owed a lot to this movie.

TerrorFirmer

It hasn't aged well? The film looks like it was made in the early 80's, despite being made relatively recently (1998). I'd have honestly nearly thought it was a b-movie after watching it...if I didn't know any better.

Even in 1998, the movie must have looked fairly poor.

stakey

The matrix does owe alot to Dark City including the set pieces!

Check it out: http://galeon.hispavista.com/cinerama/actu2/matrixdarkcity.htm

Nevyn

I really really liked that movie, the concepts were wonderful and so was the set, lighting and the casting.

The Denouncer

The only DVD I have with mpeg 5.1 sourround sound, got it from OZ. Good film, and one The Matrix haters loved to champion..but in my opinion The Matrix is far superior in every way, except it doesn't have eye candy to the standard of Jennifer Connolly.

Speaking of Jennifer - what do you think of The Rocketeer? Like Dark City loads of people have never seen it (it hit the cinemas around the same time as Prince of Thieves and Terminator 2), yet IMHO its a great Indiana Jones-style whizz bang gee whizz of a movie.

humanji

The Rocketeer was great. Pity so many people just brushed it aside without seeing it.

Vokes

The 13th Floor > The Matrix > Dark City > eXistenZ

...imo

All have similar themes and released in '99 (except fot Dark City which was '98 i think)

TerrorFirmer

Yes Dark City was 98 although it looked more like 1988 or even earlier in my opinion.

And yes I enjoyed the Rocketeer myself, good adventure yarn.

lostexpectation

what Alex Proyas doing now

I had quick imdb and google and didn't see him involved in anything

I thought I robot was prett good film (having not read the book its loosely based on), It looked great anyway

hmm imdb says he gone off the radar

The Denouncer

Yeah I, Robot was very good. Under-rated vision of a future Chicago, with great DTS sound. Some of the robots put me in mind of early 2000AD which I used to read a long time ago.

humanji

The Denouncer wrote:

Yeah I, Robot was very good. Under-rated vision of a future Chicago, with great DTS sound. Some of the robots put me in mind of early 2000AD which I used to read a long time ago.

Would I be right in assuming the phrase "Big jobs! Big Jobs!" came to mind when the house was being demolished?

The Denouncer

Originally posted by humanji
Would I be right in assuming the phrase "Big jobs! Big Jobs!" came to mind when the house was being demolished?

Yeah! And for those with 5.1 systems that scene is a demo quality audio!
In fact one of the few things the film Judge Dredd got right was the look of the ABC Warriors

StarryBud

They should never have put in that voiceover at the very beginning of Dark City that explains things. It totally smacks of studio interference - "Sher they'll never be able to make head ass or tail of this movie! Have Keifer explain the plot before the film begins, much better!"

Big mistake.

Karl Hungus

StarryBud wrote:

They should never have put in that voiceover at the very beginning that explains things. It totally smacks of studio interference - "Sher they'll never be able to make head ass or tail of this movie! Have Keifer explain the plot before the film begins, much better!"

Big mistake.

Absolutely agreed! It entirely spoils the mystery, and pretty much ruins a lot of the film.

Dark City is one of my favourite films, even if it does look like an ad for IBM at times.

The voiceover was added by the studio after Proyas had presented his finished cut. They felt that audiances wouldnt understand what was hapening. He's always said that the film should be viewed with the sound off during the voiceover.

Nevyn

They did the same thing with blade runner

Auvers

Thaedydal wrote:

They did the same thing with blade runner

Personally I liked the voice over in Blade Runner thats why I have only watched the directors cut once.

Full_Circle

I for one have always enjoyed Dark City. I liked how I had to watch it a few times before I got a grip on what was going on The film had an amazingly unique look to it. The washed out colours emphasised the bleak tone of the story, while the angled frames and dark sets highlighted the claustrophobic feel of the world Proyas created. I adored the noir-ish costumes and sets. And let’s not forget the presence of the sumptuous Ms. Connelly The music was exceptional and provided that extra UMPH when the budget couldn’t quite find its way into the visuals.

Even though quite a few people have made note of how cheap it looked, I remember being quite impressed by the visual effects the first time I saw it. Comparing it to The Matrix is a little unfair, seeing as how Proyas only had a fraction of the budget the Wachowskis were given. In saying that, I think Proyas is one of those directors who works better on a shorter leash (I thought “I, Robot” was the perfect example of a big budget gone MAD).