Dark City (Platinum Series) (1998)

New York Times
"...Relentlessly trippy in a fun-house sort of way....A visually arresting ride that offers many unsettling surprises..." 02/27/1998 p.E8

Premiere
"...Deliciously snaky performances by Hurt and Sutherland....A trippy must-see for late-night moviegoers..." 01/01/1998 p.22

Chicago Sun-Times
"...A great visionary achievement....Original and exciting....It is a triumph of art direction, set design, cinematography, special effects -- and imagination..." 02/27/1998 p.35

Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "This mind-wringer is sci-fi specialist Alex Proyas' best film to date....A must for anyone who takes their sci-fi strong, dark and minus sugar." 10/01/2008 p.173

The New York Times 8 of 10
...the movie feels like a magician's trick, a gleefully improvised demonic fantasy of ominous evil genies conjured out of bottles and stirred into a steamy swirl that brings in everything from Franz Kafka to Vincent Price, from Fritz Lang to Star Trek... - Stephen Holden
 
Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
``Dark City'' by Alex Proyas is a great visionary achievement, a film so original and exciting, it stirred my imagination like ``Metropolis'' and ``2001: A Space Odyssey.'' If it is true, as the German director Werner Herzog believes, that we live in an age starved of new images, then ``Dark City'' is a film to nourish us. Not a story so much as an experience, it is a triumph of art direction, set design, cinematography, special effects--and imagination...Like ``Blade Runner,'' it imagines a city of the future. But while ``Blade Runner'' extended existing trends, ``Dark City'' leaps into the unknown. Its vast noir metropolis seems to exist in an alternate time line, with elements of our present and past combined with visions from a futuristic comic book. Like the first ``Batman,'' it presents a city of night and shadows, but it goes far beyond ``Batman'' in a richness of ominous, stylized sets, streets, skylines and cityscapes. For once a movie city equals any we could picture in our minds; this is the city ``The Fifth Element'' teased us with, without coming through...Watching it, I realized the last dozen films I'd seen were about people standing around, talking to one another. ``Dark City'' has been created and imagined as a new visual place for us to inhabit. It adds treasure to our notions of what can be imagined. - Roger Ebert
 
ReelViews 9 of 10
The Crow will forever be remembered as the final performance of budding star Brandon Lee, who died as a result of a tragic behind-the-scenes accident. However, as intense as the hype associated with Lee's death was, it could not obscure the most impressive aspect of the 1994 feature: director Alex Proyas' startling, unforgettable vision. It's rare for any film maker, whether a veteran or a newcomer, to create the kind of compelling, endlessly-fascinating environment that Proyas brought to the screen in The Crow. Now, with his follow-up movie, Dark City, the director incredibly manages to one-up himself...If there's a flaw with Dark City (and it's a small one, to be sure), it's that the film takes a little too long forging a link between the audience and Murdoch. For the first thirty minutes, we're left floating, watching the confounding narrative unfold, marveling over the strange occurrences, and waiting for film to really grab us. Once that happens, it's difficult not to become completely engrossed. So, is the lengthy setup necessary? Almost certainly, and, as I said, any slow spots are only a tiny blemish on the face of a film that offers a gratifyingly original and stunning science fiction experience. - James Berardinelli