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List Price: $28.99 | | Label: New Line Home Video
Salesrank: 424
Released: July 29, 2008 |
| Our Price: $9.00 |
| Used Price: $8.98 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: Blu-ray |
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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) [Blu-ray]:
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) [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Sometimes, Style DOES Triumph Over Substance 
2009-12-22 - Dark City doesn't have the most interesting plot when it comes to science fiction movies. There's little character development, , and the movie is pretty much a series of chases, running around that basically piles evidence about the big picture that can be summed up in a paragraph (and also loses the mystery and the jolt moments after you see it again). How can a movie with a story like this possibly even warrant a good grade?
Well, Dark City does, and it does so with ease, thanks to the visionary directing of Alex Proyas, the art style, some fine performances, and execution. Excellent, excellent execution. Director Alex Proyas was responsible for that turd Knowing, but I always thought that the directing was very good in a sense. However, it was it's totally unimaginative in all aspects and really bored me to death (and the movie didn't even explain why those things were even there!). Dark City, however, doesn't bore you, thanks to it's one of a kind world that it creates. Sure, Dark City may not be any way significant or have anything to say, and it's frequent comparison, The Matrix, even said a lot more, and I find that movie to be little more than psuedophilosphy (don't get me wrong, I dig the Matrix, I just don't believe it's worthwhile social commentary like A Clockwork Orange)
Even though the story isn't the most profound of science fiction I've seen, it's miles better than garbage like The Day After Tommorrow, Armageddon, and even Alex Proya's own Knowing. It's not terribly complex, and the movie almost seems like a game of Myst regarding it's plot. However, unlike, say, Knowing, Dark City features some explanations that are at least interesting and gives us some insight on the creatures, who can do all kinds of crazy things and are merely just curious. It's not among the most memorable stories out there, but at least it has some grounding in creating interest and some insight.
However, Dark City really elevates itself to it's execution, from it's acting to it's sound, and most of all, it's visual style. The acting is reasonable as it makes the characters believable and somewhat likeable even though they don't develop much (but actually works because of the plot), but it's the two senses that make Dark City a great movie to behold (inspired by German Expressionalist Films) Borrowing from such movies as Metropolis (1927) (though I really can't see much of the influence of M and Nosferatu, to be honest). A special note is the effects, which are great to see. The climax of this movie, in particular, is awesome. I still can't believe they were able to make a movioe with a visual style like this in 1998, a decade before big budget CGI fests flooded the Hollywood market.
Dark City does have it's influences, but it still is a good movie that should easily complement movies like Brazil, Blade Runner, The City of Lost Children, and The Matrix, and not replace them (and those movies should not replace them either). Dark City may not have many mindblowing secrets, but it sure is a place worth visiting again and again. This DVD makes the movie even better, as it includes 3 commentaries, a theatrical trailer, cool production shots, and two documentaries totaling an hour and a half. It also adds fifteen minutes of footage to the movie (and movies) Whether or not you get the director's cut or not, the trip to Dark City is worth it.
B-
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.
