I noticed the 440+ reviews here are for the film not the Blu so I at least wanted to answer some common questions about this cut.The director's cut is 111 minutes with the already mentioned changes listed here and everywhere including the removal of the beginning narration, more character development scenes, etc. The transfer looks phenomenal (compared to how I saw it prior even upscaled). I played the title on both a Panasonic plasma and a Bravia via a 80 GB PS3 and Sony BDP301. I paused the film in over 34 spots of action, dark contrasts, bright colorings and various hue changes. Virtually every frame looked excellent, especially the scenes with Jennifer Connelly singing; the majority of the colorings were in her scenes until those last beach sequences.
The special features are the same between the DVD and Blu with the exception of one of the commentaries. The 7.1 DTS HD sound was enjoyable, even though two of the channels were primarily used in the large machine sequences only.
A worthwhile Blu addition and I did not see too many failings in the grain reduction/transfer issues I had read about.
Set in a dark world--literally dark, as no one seems to remember being out during the day--the film focuses on John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell), a man who awakens amnesiac to find a murdered woman nearby. Soon thereafter pursued by the police (led by William Hurt), he must solve the mystery of his missing memories and eerie pursuers.
Helped along the way by a woman claiming to be his wife (Jennifer Connelley) and a pendactic psychiatrist (Kiefer Sutherland), Murdoch learns that his pursuers are a race of aliens with the power to warp reality with their minds who continually change the city and the memories and even lives of the people inhabiting it in an experiment designed to save their lives. Murdoch has developed their same power to "tune" and save humanity from the aliens' machinations.
The film's theme of questionable reality--carried across on two levels as both human memories are manipulated and the physical world itself changed on a nightly basis--is done fairly well if somewhat less successfully than the in the Matrix.
Replete with dark imagery suiting the film noir genre and quite at home in Blade Runner, the movie makes for a stunning visual performance. The aliens are masterfully done as frightening and eerie outsiders. My only complaint is that I was able to grasp the film's actions and meanings on a first viewing with little difficulty; I had expected to come out with the sense of, "What the heck?!" that would require two or three viewings to fully digest the film's depth. Yet that aside, the film is still a definite watch for any fans of film noir or reality-questioning sci-fi.
The DVD includes a number of special features to sweeten the deal, including two commentary tracks, the theatrical trailer (whose music unfortunately didn't make it into the film), an isolated score track, and more. The video and audio transfers are crisp and clean.
Buy Dark City (Director's Cut) (2008) Now
'Dark City' is pure science fiction noir and a visual feast: a gloomy metropolis encrusted with bristling Gothic ornament, redesigned and reinvented in impressive FX sequences night after night. Making up original stories in the noirish setting is one difficult task, as you can tell by watching the movie. It is complicated and mysteriously complex, all to the point where, if you take your eyes of the film for one second, you can get lost. Every moment of your attention must be paid to the movie as it unfolds, otherwise you may perhaps not appreciate the quality and effort that movie brings on. Films like "Dark City" are the pinnacles of imagination and visual style--you look at them and wonder, how any human being could possibly create such breathtaking scenarios and stories. The movie is not for one second dull and dreary, and never for one moment a let down.The premise of the movie, outlined by Kiefer Sutherland's "mad doctor" character as we descend into the "Dark City", is that a race of aliens is dying, although they are advanced enough to control spacetime through thought alone, a process known as "tuning." His character is central to the plot of the aliens' experiments with a cast of human subjects by rearranging their memories nightly not just within an individual, but from one person to the next. The whys and wherefores revolve around one John Murdoch, played with urgency by Rufus Sewell and shadowed throughout by John Hurt's angular, intense police detective.
In this era of pretentious, over the top sci-fi films (The Matrix) Dark City stands as a triumph of imagination and will endure for years.
Read Best Reviews of Dark City (Director's Cut) (2008) Here
A brilliant film from Alex Proyas, that expertly mixes noir, science fiction and themes of existentialism. A lot has been written about this great film (go read Ebert), so I won't repeat. But here are the confirmed special features for the DVD release; it's a packed-to-the-gills release, and Amazon had not updated the product page at the time of this post.* The disc will carry both the theatrical and director's cuts of the film each of which will be presented in anamorphic widescreen, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround track.
* Extras will include:
3 commentary tracks (with director Alex Proyas, Writers Lem Dobbs, and David S Goyer, Director of Photography Dariusz Wolski, Production Designer Patrick Tatopoulous, and film critic Roger Ebert)
An introduction by Alex Proyas
A Memories of Shell Beach making-of featurette
An Architecture of Dreams featurette
Text Essays
Neil Gaiman review of Dark City
A production gallery
Trailers and more.
Want Dark City (Director's Cut) (2008) Discount?
When I saw Dark City in the theater, I turned to a friend after it was over and told him this movie was either a triumph or a total disaster, I just didn't know which. After sleeping on it for the weekend, I finally came to the conclusion that this movie was indeed a triumph. If The Matrix did not upstage this movie a year later, I firmly believe people would still be talking about it. I do not agree with Roger Ebert that Dark City was the best movie of 1998, but I do admire director Alex Proyas' efforts to dare the audience to actually use their brains. Dark City is not filled with pointless car chases or endless gun fights. It is instead filled with something better ambitious ideas that force us to question the very nature of reality. Are the memories we possess really ours and organic in nature? Or are they synthetic and subject to the whims of chance? For that matter, does reality exist in and of itself or is it an artificial construct? Is human consciousness real or do we just think it is real? Am I the same person I was yesterday or was I someone else? Do not get the idea, though, that this movie is the visual equivalent of a staid classroom lecture. Dark City also functions as an exciting movie in its right by combining the best elements of sci-fi and film noir into an engrossing mystery. Just think of Dark City as a good movie with more of a brain that you might be used to.Save 43% Off
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