Rating: 
Summary: Not as "flawed" as other reviewers would have you believe...
Review: After reading one particularly scathing review about the many "flaws" and "defects" present in the dvd version, i was very hesitant to purchase it. However, the fact that this disk contains both the widescreen and full-screen versions won me over. After watching the dvd several times, i noticed nothing wrong with the color/shadows that i read about in a couple of reviews. i, too, watched this movie on a 27" tv (just as did the reviewer who saw the "flaws") and noticed absolutely nothing wrong. In fact, the dvd looks much, much better than any vhs copy i've seen (since i own both vhs and dvd, i should know). That said, there isn't much i can really add to the reviews already posted in terms of reviewing the movie itself. If you've never seen it but loved the Matrix, you'll notice some obvious similarities (both in terms of plot and style). Dark City really is one of the more intrigueing science fiction movies to come out for quite some time, and has even received some very notable praise from such highly-regarded critics as Siskel and Ebert, who named Dark City their "movie of the year" for 1998.
Rating: 
Summary: The Sun doesn't shine brightly on DARK CITY
Review: The real star of DARK CITY is the production design, a dense urban sprawl that cleverly builds a dark comic book world. Every dark alleyway leads you to a darker alleyway. The city's uncanny morphing warps and distorts the skyline every evening. The inhabitants of the city are no less part of the production design as their lives are transformed every evening as well. All of this happens because some 'Nosferatu' looking aliens have the ability to manipulate time and matter, controlling life as they would playing the computer game "Sim City". Humanities only chance for redemption is a character who must beat a bum murder rap to show he is 'the one' to topple the invaders. Here the MATRIX similarities end as that film was an action film, this a more passive 'cerebral' film. Most of the performances are flat... William Hurt (A.I., CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD) is the police detective who believes in the hero, played by Rufus Sewell (HAMLET). Through alien intervention, Jennifer Connelly (LABYRINTH, A BEAUTIFUL MIND) is appointed his wife. (I could use that kind of intervention in my life!) Kiefer Sutherland goes way out on a limb as a vocally, physically and psychically challenged doctor. Unfortunately, he goes to far out and falls. His character is never 'true' leaving the viewer always aware of his 'performance'. Give him an "E" for effort. The director does a good job of deriving several movie elements into one film. To fans of the cinema, you'll spend most of the film earmarking those films. DARK CITY has a very carefully selected audience. It is more of a graphic novel (high on concept and low on character) then great cinema. The DVD has marginal video transfer as the 'darks' show several imperfections. It also includes a couple commentaries and smaller features.(...)
Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL VISUALS AND PLOT
Review: Since the first time I saw "Dark City" It became one of my top Fiction movies.
a) Direction: Proyas gives a cool example of new Science Fiction-Noir cinema with shady visuals and Gothic sets. The manage of the main characters is very good and never too predictable.
b) The actors: I love Jenniffer Connelly with all my heart and I loved the scenes when she sings (dubbed of course). Rufus Sewell and William Hurt are good as usual but I loved the Sutherland character as a scientist with no memories.
c) The plot: The premise of having no memories and changing who you are night after night is so cool. And then the ghostly aliens using death people's bodies and dressed like a "Matrix" buddy are very good designed.
d) The production: Wonderful special effects; the transformation of the city and the final "mental fight" are very good. The City itself like a 50's dream night is o.k. too but the part that really shocked me is the WONDERFUL WONDERFUL score composed by Trevor Jones. The pulsating music, the misterious passages and the Final triumphant bombastic conclusion is Trevor in one of his best works. Good for him! The movie is a full circle and I simply love it.
Rating: 
Summary: The stars are for the PRODUCT, not the movie.
Review: I love Dark City. It's one of my favorite movies. Definitely in my "Top 50." Were I reviewing the movie alone, you would see five stars above. But what you're being asked to shell out your presumably hard-earned cash for is not just the movie, but the movie as presented on a particular medium: DVD.
DVD is wonderful, if done right. Therein lies the problem: this DVD is *not* done "right." This DVD is full of digital artifacts, which distract from the movie, especially with larger screens. The bigger your set, the more irritated you're going to be by the DVD's flaws. My set is only 27", but they're noticeable. I saw the DVD (different copy and player) on a friend's 35" set, and they were downright annoying.
Dark City has many shadows, and in these shadows you'll see what I can only describe as blocky weirdness. Patches of mobile color "zones" that shift amongst each other like the squares in those 1-15 tile games. You'll see this pretty much anywhere it's dark on the screen. Small complaint, it seems, doesn't it? Well, consider: the title of this movie is DARK CITY. And, it is. In a typical movie, this flaw would appear rarely. In this movie, the flaw appears frequently.
This movie's visuals are fantastic; too good to mess up with sloppy DVD work. Granted, the DVD's sound is better, but I like this movie so much I suggest getting the VHS version. (The VHS version is available widescreen, essential for this movie's visuals.) Until they fix the shadow portions on the DVD, it's not worth the distraction.
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12/2002 edit: I just watched it again this weekend with a friend who has never seen it. The result is that I solidly stand by the review, despite some inexplicable later comments by some others to the contrary. The two copies of the DVD I have seen have distracting digital artifacts in dark areas. It's irritating and noticeable, and my friend asked about it in the middle of the movie without my having said a word in advance. No kidding.
I love the movie. Doesn't change the fact that it's wrong to sell an ill-produced product -- the DVD itself.
Rating: 
Summary: First there was Dark City
Review: Unlike the Matrix, this film is not intended to be a blockbuster. It is instead, film noir, scifi, and even thriller all packaged into a unique style of film. This film is very much plot and character driven, as opposed to action or CGI, making it quite different to the Matrix. Proyas' cleverness as a director is evident in his insight not to create Dark City using WOW-like special effects. This deliberate attempt to down-play the special effects (some people may find this distracting or downright terrible) serves to enhance the plot, and so draw the audience to the main attraction that is the story. This is not another Matrix, even though it uses similar plot devices. Many people seem to find the plot to the scifi thriller confusing and benign; there are strong biblical elements in the story. For example, Murdoch is very much an unwilling Messiah, while Shell Beach is very much representative of Heaven - no-one can remember how to get there, yet apparently is is ultimately everyone's destination. Even the spirals that Koscinsky scrawls everywhere are symbolic of Hell. Consequently, there is very much a theme of salvation about the movie. Murdoch, as the Messiah, sacrifices his own life when he gives himself over to the Strangers - and when he rises again overthrows the most powerful of them. This is followed up with a resolution that offers a new life to everybody in the floating city. The biblical parallel cannot and should not be taken too far. While there are allusions there, Proyas has intended to make a darkly entertaining, and thought provoking film. It is a film that will stand up against close scrutiny, and so can be watched more than once, with new insights discovered each time. The Strangers are very communisitic in nature, borrowed undoubtedly from Fritz Lang's classic, Metropolis. The plot development revolves very much around Murdoch going on a quest of self discovery, at the same time unearthing may layers of truths about the world around him - very much a film noir device. There is a certain 'blandness' to all the sets. While not as drab a set as Proyas' The Crow, this 'blandness' is insightful by Proyas, as the city itself (as evidenced in the film) is constructed from the memories of those taken from Earth. Memories are notorious for lacking intimate detail, and so the askew detail within the set seems most astute of human nature by Proyas. Alternately, maybe this could simply be argued away with budget constraints! The movie is almost too clever. People seem to expect it to be a roller-coaster ride similar to The Matrix. However, Proyas never intended Dark City to be an action blockbuster. Instead he follows the classic formula of the distopian writers, creating a flawed world, that is ultimately destroyed. Because of this, the film serves as an homage to many sources - scifi classics, film noir classics, and so on. Yet the twists and plot developments are unique in their own right; here it is most important to note that, in fact, Dark City was produced before The Matrix. Dark City is faster paced than the other famous scifi film noir film Bladerunner, thus making it more watchable. Because of this, Dark City can be enjoyed simply as a piece of entertainment, while at the same time connoisseurs can enjoy a more cerebral challenge. Not all scifi fans will enjoy this movie! But those who don't mind having their brain cells stimulated are likely to enjoy this.
Rating:
Summary: intellectually stimulating sci-fi
Review: "Dark City" is a film along the lines of traditional science fiction, whose vision of 'the future' essentially picks up where Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" left off. John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakens one night in a hotel bathroom, with no memory of his past. As he gradually pieces together the elements of his existence, he stumbles upon The Strangers (headed by Richard 'Riff Raff' O'Brien), a race of otherworldly beings who tinker with people's brains to try and discover what comprises the human soul. "Dark City" is loaded with intellectually stimulating ideas (could we be mere nerve endings twitching on one collective mind?), a moody, film noir-ish atmosphere, and inventive set design (echoing the the architecture and wardrobe of the 1940's). While the movie is miles beyond director Alex Proyas' debut feature, "The Crow," and its content will leave your brain swimming, "Dark City" only hooks into the viewer during random sequences. It is ultimately too FX-heavy to be entrancing in the same way ACO was, and Rufus Sewell's toneless performance doesn't necessarily help. Despite this, "Dark City" IS an intelligent, intriguing, and even frightening look at the jigsaw puzzle of our existence, leaving would-be intellectual junk like "The Matrix" dead in the dirt.
Rating:
Summary: The new age of Sci-fi begins with this movie...
Review: As a Sci-fi fan, I've seen it all, and the new films are not making any difference anymore...but Dark City definetely is. The film is very well done, with very good fx, but most important, with an excellent plot (probably where new films mostly fail). The DVD Platinum Edition offers Fullscreen format, a Remote Control based game (don't expect too much, anyway!) and lots of additional features. I loved the film...
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Sci-Fi Comicbook Noir
Review: This film does an absolutely incredible job of blending science-fiction, comic-book narrative structure, and noir atmosphere for a spectacular piece of entertainment. On visuals alone, this movie is mesmerizing and attentive to detail. In order to understand the shifting of scenes in the plot, you need to imagine the way a comic book unfolds, from one rectangle of words and illustration to the next. The movie is the grandaddy of them all (the recent pseudo-meta-Xstantial binge of ambitious directors), most notably the fun Existenz, followed by the entertaining Matrix, and to a lesser extent Thirteenth Floor. The mystery and drama blend well in a mix of stunning landscapes, creepy villains (the alien Strangers, who have abducted humans to search their souls...), confused and ambiguous memories, and climactic excitement. This is one of my favorite movies of all time, and obviously highly recommended. The DVD is excellent, offering WS and full screen formats, commentary tracks, and others nice extras. Picture is seamless, sound is superlative. See this and find how much the better known movies have stolen.
Rating:
Summary: 2Stars is Really being 2Kind/They Should Pay you 2 Watch
Review: This movie is terrible in my viewpoint. This movie couldn't possibly be any more boring than it already is. It didn't even hold my attention. I was waiting for something major to happen, instead there are a whole bunch of aliens floating aroud town dressed in black. The only shocking thing was the fact that the whole city was a spaceship or something like that. I know that I really hated this movie. I give it 2 thumbs down, and I can't believe Keifer Sutherland. Keifer is a good actor but, "Dark City" just doesn't cut it.
Rating:
Summary: Wierd but AWESOME
Review: This movie it a trip! I don't know why though you would be considering buying a movie online if you hadn't seen it before. If your feeling crazy though and throwing around money is cool with you, hey, take a chance on this, it's a good film.
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