Dark City: Director's Cut--Blu-ray Review (2008)

The visual influences are obvious--Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis,” Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner,” Victor Fleming’s “The Wizard of Oz.” But “Dark City” nevertheless is director Alex Proyas’ own.

Now out on Blu-ray disc, this 1998 sci-fi film offers a haunting vision infused with staccato editing, retro-futuristic set designs and hallucinatory images that are beautiful in their grandeur.

Rufus Sewell is John Murdoch, who as the movie begins is told by a breathless Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) that men are coming to kill him. Turns out, he’s right. Soon, Murdoch is on the run from a band of bald, gray-faced Strangers seeking the key to the human soul in an effort to prolong their own doomed race.

Their quest is at once frightening and thrilling, deadly and macabre, with the story lifted considerably when Murdoch learns he has telekinetic powers that can alter shapes and give him the power of flight.

It’s an enjoyably twisted film that pushes toward truths that could be mistruths--and lies that might be at the cornerstone of a warped reality.

Rated R. Grade: B+

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