Next: #3 Serenity (Previous: #1 Primer)
UPDATE (Jan. 19): Director Alex Proyas talks Dark City and Dracula Year Zero with Techland
Yes, Roger Ebert – the nation’s most prominent film critic – pounced on Dark City when it was first released, naming the film the best movie of 1998. But setting that aside, I still think that this is a movie that remains unknown to so many of those who got caught up in the mania surrounding the far inferior The Matrix a year later.
A mishmash of sci-fi, noir, monster films and Kafka-esque confused identities, what Dark City adds up to is a panicked rush through the seedy back alleys of a mesmerizing otherworldly metropolis. There are shape-changers from another universe, altered memories from a confused subconscious, dead prostitutes that leave a wanted man running for his life, and a head-spinning firefight that reduces the city to rubble.
And then there’s a peeling back of world behind the world, that alters the meaning of all that has come before. Dark City is an unlikely fusion of influences that works brilliantly – a visionary universe all its own that was unfairly streamlined in its marketing to look like a one-dimensional comic book affair. It also boasts one of the all-time great twist endings – right up there with films like Pan’s Labyrinth. Check out our interview with Pan’s director Guillermo del Toro, about his biggest fantasy and monster movie influences:
Next: #3 Serenity
More at Techland: Check out the video games we want to play in 2010
