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| knox |
 Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 1:09 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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| What with films like Source Code and The Adjustment Bureau in theaters, I deemed it a suitable time to revisit "Dark City" -- as I watch, I have to wonder if one could call The Matrix a ripoff of this fine film. So many elements....the alien control of a fabricated reality, the long black coats, the steel-wire suspended fight scenes, the heroic figure who has acquired an ability to bend this reality (played with beautiful and understated intensity by Rufus Sewell) and defy the power of the aliens....are picked up by The Matrix trilogy, and IMO dumbed down a bit. I watch Dark City and I find myself saying, why bother with The Matrix? And the extended architectonic hommage to "Metropolis" is one of the most thrilling pieces of cinematic art out there. I think Dark City is one sci-fi/fantasy film that is quite accessible to mainstream film fans, and worth a look if you haven't seen it. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 5:16 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
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Love "Dark City." There's a bit of The Truman Show in DC, too -- the whole thing with "Shell Beach" and Sewell and Hurt breaking through the wall/billboard at the end. Can't remember which came out first (DC, maybe?), but the two are strongly connected in my mind. Both are better films than The Matrix, much as I liked the high-concept route that The Matrix took. DC is much more psychological in its approach, with the fascinating uncertainties that the characters have about their own pasts, and just where their memories come from. If you want to say which film really carries the torch of Philip K. Dick, it's Dark City IMO.
And I think it's cool that the creator of Rocky Horror has a big role, as "Mr. Hand." |
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| knox |
| Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 5:35 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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| DC and Truman Show - I can see it. DC connects to many films. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 8:00 pm |
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Dark City is a gem of the genre. I loved it. I think that was the first time I saw Sewel and he was terrific in the part. The Matrix was very good but it didn't have the psychological depth that DC had.
The Truman Show was stupid. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 8:12 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Ebert is in love with Dark City in a way he seldom is. I've tried to get into it a couple of times and will try again now that so many are embracing it. But it's not my cup of tea. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 8:30 pm |
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| It`s best on the big screen of course, as most all scifi movies are. And from what I remember the score was terrific also. I went into the movie thinking I would like it and came out of it jacked up by how good it was. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 9:09 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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marantzo wrote: Dark City is a gem of the genre. I loved it. I think that was the first time I saw Sewel and he was terrific in the part. The Matrix was very good but it didn't have the psychological depth that DC had.
The Truman Show was stupid.
I thought they both were. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 9:22 pm |
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| I'd tend to agree if you were referring to The Matrix II and III (there was a third wasn't there?), but not the first one. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 9:02 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
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I can understand the "not my cup of tea" reaction to Dark City, because it is derived from a comic book universe. I'm not wowed by Sutherland's caricature of a scientist, but he did help to reinforce the idea that this was someone's idea of a city, not a real city. The roots in "Metropolis" this film has make caricature inevitable. I think it's the visual art of the film that really makes it, and that captures the dark paranoia that can be found in lives that seem to run on well-oiled tracks and do not bear any introspection or examination of one's past.
The first time I saw Rufus Sewell in anything was in "Cold Comfort Farm,"
with a very young Kate Beckinsale, all rounded with baby fat. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 9:35 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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I've never seen Dark City (or the Matrix sequels).Have heard good things about DC over the years.
I thought The Truman Show was pretty good.
Liked the concept. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 9:39 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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I agree that The Truman Show was ridiculous and one of the more overrated films of the last whatever...ten, twenty years. Based on her performance therein, I never would have suspected that Laura Linney was nearly as talented as she indubitably is, nor that she would enjoy the major career she is enjoying. She and Carrey had no chemistry and he was in over his head.
The Matrix is a beautiful-looking, slickly professional, empty-headed piece of nonsense. I own this movie and have never been able to get through it. Never have ventured or will venture toward the sequels. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 9:57 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I liked "Truman Show" and "Matrix" (never saw its sequels), and I saw "Dark City" on TV about ten years ago. It was intriguing and I'd like to see it again--preferably on a big screen, though that seems unlikely unless one of the few remaining old-movie theaters in NYC gets it. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 11:38 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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I thought the Truman Show was supposed to be ridiculous and, as a ridiculous over-the-top exploration of a paranoid fantasy I thought it made some rather fun satiric jabs at the modern media circus and "reality television." Linney was supposed to be plastic and repellent, and she did a fine job IMO.
Agree with Billy, mostly, on....
Quote: The Matrix is a beautiful-looking, slickly professional, empty-headed piece of nonsense. I own this movie and have never been able to get through it. Never have ventured or will venture toward the sequels.
Wise man. Avoid the sequels. The first one, for me, had some interesting ideas and a few moments (when people weren't slowing down bullets and dancing up walls in leather overcoats) that were good -- like Joe Pantoliano (spelling correctors, this is my hour of need) saying in effect, "screw the real world with its fetid underground and disgusting eggs, I'd rather have high threadcount sheets and prime rib in The Matrix!" The sci-fi premise, that we would make good bio-batteries for an alien power plant, was just silly. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 1:00 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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bartist wrote: The sci-fi premise, that we would make good bio-batteries for an alien power plant, was just silly.
That's what they WANT you to think. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 9:05 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
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Hahahaha!
I vaguely remember reading some SF writer on the "human battery" thing, one of the "hard science fiction" boys like Arthur Clarke or Gregory Benford....said something like we would actually produce a net LOSS of energy, if used for power.....the energy to grow, say, some soybeans and grain to feed us would be more than our bodies would produce for some kind of power plant. You could just harvest the solar radiation falling on our food crops and get much more energy. (leaving aside the fact that there would be no need for all the energy squandered on a high-resolution computer simulation....if we are just batteries, then might as well remove the brain and just use the body, running on a brain stem automatic mode) |
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