Dark City - Director's Cut (1998) **1/2

Alex Proyas, we get it—you like: Art Deco, film noir, Franz Kafka, Edward Hopper, Fritz Lang, H. R. Giger, Terry Gilliam, Jeunet & Caro, Blade Runner (1982) (review), Hellraiser (1987) (review), Tim Burton's Batmans (review, review). If only you'd been able to take those influences and make something original that didn't feel like a ham-fisted mishmash of homages. Everything in Dark City (1998) feels borrowed and blended with no cohesiveness, like a pale imitation. Maybe that works for some viewers, given the themes of the film, but it doesn't for me.

I saw DC when it was released theatrically. At the time, I loved it. I was also 18. I've owned the film on DVD and Blu-ray. That was the last time I watched the film, when the Director's Cut debuted on the latter format in 2008. Over the years, I've liked the film less and less and this latest viewing proved that it really has not aged well.

Admittedly, I love the production design. All the influences I mentioned previously are things I like a lot, too. But when you throw in bad CGI, wonky color grading, and hammy acting (really Keifer, you're too much) it plays like a step above Sci-Fi Channel (Syfy) schlock. Sutherland's exposition dump in the finale is truly awful as well. Additionally, I like Jennifer Connelly, but she has zero charisma as a jazz-age nightclub singer—I guess maybe you could justify this by the whole false memories storyline but still…

Worst of all is the machine gun editing in DC (something that has never sat right with me and which now I flat out can't stand). It's so fast-paced that the film has no room to breath and there is almost zero time given to enjoy all the details that undoubtedly went into the production. Truly some of the worst editing in any film, in my opinion (in either version, theatrical or Director's Cut). Editing of this sort actually fatigues me and causes me to lose focus. It's particularly annoying because with better editing, DC could be something great. Instead, nothing feels earned; everything is slap dash and surface. Again, maybe that works for some, given the plot, but not for me.

I still don't understand how Proyas went from The Crow (1994), which holds up quite well, to this, and then on to movies I couldn't care less about (none of which I've seen). A lot of people thought Proyas was a visionary. He turned out to be a director with some disparate ideas that never jelled, and DC was the precursor to the endless crop of ADD superhero/franchise movies that have plagued cinema for more than a quarter century.