Dark City: Director's Cut

The original cut of Dark City, released ten years ago, introduced the world to an interesting yet somewhat awkward sci-fi film that intrigued fans of the genre but didn’t make much of an impact on a mainstream movie-going audience. The new Director’s Cut smoothes out some of the original film’s awkward edges, restoring Director Alex Proyas’ (The Crow) original version of the story and, though it doesn’t contain any major alterations to the original, improves the film enough to turn it from fan boy footnote to true classic of the genre. When John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) wakes up in the midst of a murder scene, confused and suffering from amnesia, he’s contacted by a mysterious stranger hinting at a greater conspiracy. John soon discovers he’s trapped in a strange city of endless night where bizarre alien creatures alter the world at will, experimenting on the humans who inhabit the city like rats trapped in a maze. John, along with a police detective (William Hurt), who’s assigned to the murder John’s been accused of, and a strange doctor (Kiefer Sutherland) in league with the aliens, works to stop the endless experiments and free the people from their manipulated lives. The sci-fi noir world of Dark City still looks good ten years on and the special effects, which didn’t rely on a lot of digital manipulation, are refreshing to revisit a decade later. The disc is light on special features, though the obligatory "people talking about the film” features (an introduction by Alex Proyas, "Memories of Shell Beach” and "Architecture of a Dream”) are more interesting to watch than those of a typical new release, as everyone is free to reminisce without the taint of "doing good publicity” forcing rehearsed and rehashed sound-bites from their mouths. There are two standard commentaries by director Alex Proyas and writers Lem Dobbs and David S. Goyer, as well as a commentary by film critic Roger Ebert, who has an almost fan boy fanaticism towards the film. Dark City, which predates The Matrix by a year, has a lot in common visually and thematically with the Wachowski Brothers’ successful franchise but this new cut proves that Dark City is a superior film that deserves to be included amongst the great titles of the genre. Fans of the original film will want to pick up a copy of this DVD and sci-fi fans that haven’t seen Dark City, or were only lukewarm on the original cut, are strongly encouraged to check out this Director’s Cut.