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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: New Line Home Video
Salesrank: 7194
Released: July 29, 2008 |
| Our Price: $5.49 |
| Used Price: $2.50 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
The critically-acclaimed triumph from visionary director Alex Proyas (I, Robot, The Crow) is back with a brand new directors cut featuring enhanced picture and sound, never-before-seen footage and three commentary tracks that take you deeper than ever before into the world of one of sci-fis most exciting and revered tales. When John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) wakes with no memory at the scene of a grisly murder, he soon finds himself hunted by the police, a woman claiming to be his wife and a mysterious group of pale men who seem to control everything and everyone in the city. Starring Rufus Sewell (The Illusionist), Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind), William Hurt (A History of Violence) and Kiefer Sutherland (TVs 24).
Description of Dark City (Director's Cut):
If you're a fan of brooding comic-book antiheroes, got a nihilistic jolt from The Crow (1994), and share director Alex Proyas's highly developed preoccupation for style over substance, you might be tempted to call Dark City an instant classic of visual imagination. It's one of those films that exists in a world purely of its own making, setting its own rules and playing by them fairly, so that even its derivative elements (and there are quite a few) acquire their own specific uniqueness. Before long, however, the film becomes interesting only as a triumph of production design. And while that's certainly enough to grab your attention (Blade Runner is considered a classic, after all), it's painfully clear that Dark City has precious little heart and soul. One-dimensional characters are no match for the film's abundance of retro-futuristic style, so it's best to admire the latter on its own splendidly cinematic terms. Trivia buffs will be interested to know that the film's 50-plus sets (partially inspired by German expressionism) were built at the Fox Film Studios in Sydney, Australia, home base of director Alex Proyas and producer Andrew Mason. The underground world depicted in the film required the largest indoor set ever built in Australia. --Jeff Shannon
Dark City (Director's Cut) Reviews:
Circle of circles 
2009-12-16 - The Amazon editorial review implies this film is all style no substance, but that is untrue. Although a lot of effort went into the style (partly in homage to Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis') the darkness here is no mere plot device, it is a metaphor.
The 'dark city' is an elaborate device created by a soulless race of aliens (who all look like John Gielgud, perhaps because they "use our dead as vessels") as part of a giant experiment to find out what makes humans IRREDUCIBLE (i.e. the part of us that can't be measured or quantified - our souls). 'Dark City' is clearly influenced by Gnostic spirituality, with its concept of a demiurge who has trapped us in a materialistic 'circle of circles'.
The film is tightly scripted and packed together, with extremely fast camera shots (like British show 'The Prisoner', with which it has much in common), and more than one viewing may be necessary to understand the plot in its entirety.
Dark City is Magnificent on Blu-ray 
2009-11-24 - There are a plethora of reviews of the movie, but my review is mostly a comparison of the BD vs DVD version. I won't discuss its merits as movie.
I've seen its 2 DVD releases and finally BD. The DVD versions were consistently mastered in the best possible quality, although the DVD menu design is spartan and unimaginative.
DC is stellar in BD, and carries the reputation of fine digital mastering over to a new media. Rich, textured detail burst out in sets, costumes, CGI, and actor's faces to make DC a reference for video quality. Thread patterns on clothing, pores on faces, nearly readable text on papers held by characters are easily visible, but such details make obvious props from CGI effects, as the CGI has far less detail.
One can watch the movie multiple times and see something new. The BD menus and extras are identical to the DVD version, except that both director's cut and theatrical releases are on the same disk.
Audio quality is crisp and clear, except it lacks more distributed imaging. This is the movie's principle drawback.
As DC exemplifies, its better to spend less on fancy BD disk menus and more to insure the highest video and audio quality is placed on disk, something we still do not see universally in many BD releases.
If you own DC on DVD, the BD is worth the upgrade price and a steal at $10, current as of this review.
Great movie, outstanding picture! A must-see for sci-fi fans..
2009-10-27 - I was surprised by the quality of the digital film transfer. If you haven't seen this movie before, here's an excellent opportunity to know it. This is not a regular sci-fi movie, and I think this is really what makes it unique in the genre.
Dark City the way Alex Proyas intended it to be.
2009-10-06 - While the original DVD release of Dark City is quite good it's here where Alex Proyas delivers an expanded story and rights some errors that were necessitated by the studio in its original 1998 release. Characters have been expanded further and the pace was tightened up on what I considered to be an excellent movie to begin with. It simply gets better in the director's cut.
The most notable change I've noticed was the removal of the narration at the beginning which simply gave away the film's secret far too early regarding "tuning". Also the opening sequence is shorter without any cutaways to the traffic and denizens of the city. Wordlessly, Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) checks his watch as it freezes at midnight, turns and walks away from the camera as if he were Marty Feldman beckoning you to "walk this way". On the original commentary on the 2001 DVD release Proyas stated that, regarding the original cut, he was pleased with 90% of it. The introductory sequence was a sizable chunk of that 10% he was unhappy with for it was the studio's decision and not his to spoon-feed the audience.
Afterwards it was the slow revealing of the nature of the city and the characters who inhabit it where the director's cut shines. Once past the abbreviated beginning the story now has a bit of extra time to develop the details further.
The director's cut DVD, while marred by the "Digital Copy" (Expired July 29, 2009, even though all DVDs are already digital copies of film/video to begin with) it has a much better picture when compared to the original 2001 flipper DVD release. It also boasts three commentary tracks: A version of Roger Ebert's original commentary with new interview details spliced in (you can tell which parts were spliced due to when Ebert got surgery performed on his jaw), a newly-recorded Alex Proyas commentary and finally commentary track with both Lem Dobbs and David Goyer. Three documentaries (totaling 82 minutes) help to flesh out an already spectacular thought-provoking film.
I wouldn't replace the old 2001 release with this DVD. I do prefer Ebert's more detailed commentary on the 2001 DVD release. And, like Ebert's commentary, the other commentary tracks are different enough to render the original release worth keeping. It is also missing the "Find Shell Beach" interactive "game" (more along the lines of "find all the easter eggs for a kitschy little animation") and some other lesser features such as the pan'n'scan 4:3 version of the film. New Line has always done excellent DVD's for their "Platinum Series". And, if you don't have the 2001 version, it can be found cheap.
With the discovery of a lengthier and more complete version of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" found in Buenos Aires, Dark City whets the appetite for its inspiration. And, within these links of films, I wonder how much of an influence Dark City had on 1999's "The Matrix".
I'm not disappointed by this DVD. It was an impulse buy for me for $15 at a brick'n'mortar store a couple years ago. The price is even better now on Amazon. It's a cut which has the fans of Dark City and neo-noir science fiction in mind.
Film noir sci-fi...
2009-09-28 - Dark City (1998), directed by Alex Proyas (I, Robot), is a film noir sci-fi which plays tribute to sci-fi classics films like Metropolis, and Bladerunner. Kiefer Sutherland portrays a rather mad scientist (Dr. Daniel Schreber) who assists aliens in their experiments on the humans trapped in this artificial world. Every night the city is shifted into new configurations, and the people are given new memories. These aliens, "Strangers", are endangered parasites with a collective consciousness, who are experimenting on humans so as to analyze the "nature verses nurture" concept of the human hosts in their hope to find a way to survive. John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) is one of the few humans to break free of the control of the Strangers, and has also attained the unique ability to manipulate the virtual world that he finds himself in. William Hurt also appears in the film as a tough guy inspector, and Jennifer Connelly is Emma, John Murdoch's wife. This is a captivating film that addresses aspects about reality, perception, and identity.
The extended cut has 15 extra minutes compared to the theatrical release. In these extra minutes the director has added some additional scenes that help to further develop the characters. Also, in the extended cut, the director has eliminated the voice over that was originally heard at the beginning of the film on the theatrical version of the film. The 1080p transfer looks excellent with minimal DNR, and EE, being apparent. The blu-ray is definitely a boast up from DVD as far as vibrant colors, bold primaries, deep blacks, detail in shadows, and sound (7.1 DTS HD Master Audio) that comes close to a convincing theatrical experience.
