In the last 25 years, there have been some particularly evocative film-noir works to grace the landscape of the science fiction genre. Films like Blade Runner, Twelve Monkeys, The Matrix, and Dark City. But for reasons not reflecting any lack of merit, Dark City tends to be less familiar among movie aficionados than those first three films. Dark City was Ebert’s favorite film of 1998 and with good reason. It’s unconventional, uncompromising, engrossing, at times a bit uncomfortable, and it continually draws in the viewer on a more deeply emotional level until the film’s final climax. The film succeeds on many levels: intellectually it’s a sound premise; the writing, acting, and pacing are adept; and visually the film is an artful expression of film noir cinematography. Much like The Matrix and Twelve Monkeys, the film also plays out an intriguing mystery with an imaginative premise that slowly unfolds as the film’s clues are delivered.

I don’t want to diminish any of the impact for first-time viewers by giving away too much of the story’s plot. But without dispelling too much mystery you’ll quickly discover when watching that the story’s basic premise is constructed around questions of what constitutes reality, how we define ourselves, and our understanding of who we are given our impulses and our behavior. Does that sound obscure and confusing? Sorry, that’s about all you should know if you’re watching this film for the first time. Please, avoid reading any plot summaries or additional movie reviews (which will inevitably reveal too much) and merely ask yourself the question: “Do I like movies like Blade Runner, The Matrix, and Twelve Monkeys?”. If the answer is yes, then you need to own this film if you own those others, or merely rent this film if you’ve rented those others.

One thing that makes this latest home video addition especially important for fans is that not only is this the film’s first appearance on high definition media, but it’s also the film’s first time appearing in its new director’s cut form via any media channel. Having watched the theatrical cut about ten times previously, I can confidently say that watching this new director’s cut (and in high definition) was like watching the film for the first time. Many of the changes are subtle, like small snippets of conversations being woven back into scenes, reworking of the flow of a few scenes to slow down the pacing, or a slightly altered musical score to evoke a more subtle, insidious mood. Yet in concert these objectively minor alterations make a profoundly different subjective experience.

One key difference that fans will notice immediately is the opening of the film, which negates the theatrical cut’s overdubbed narration and takes more time setting up a visual scenario. It feels like being slowly submerged in the story rather than being pushed in, as the theatrical cut does. If any of this reminds you of some of the differences between the theatrical and director’s cut of Blade Runner, my mind made the same comparison while watching this director’s cut. I will never watch the theatrical cut again, except perhaps to satisfy my curiosity and to remind myself that version doesn’t do full justice to the director’s vision.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

New Line has been the subject of some controversy given the grain-filtering applied to two of their high-profile Blu-ray Discs: Pan’s Labyrinth and Hairspray. Consumer feedback to the studio regarding a preference for unfiltered, naturally detailed high definition images preserving film grain has been strong, and New Line representatives have mentioned to several industry sources recently that the studio was aware of the issue and would be providing unfiltered transfers in the future. For this reason, a lot of anticipation has built around this release for Dark City on Blu-ray Disc; fans were hopeful that New Line would deliver a “true to film” high definition representation preserving all the natural film grain and high-frequency detail of the original source.

So what’s the verdict? The 2.35:1 VC-1 compressed image has indeed been filtered for all traces of grain. However, the result is still subjectively an impressive image that is a revelation in comparison to any standard definition DVD and the cleanup seems to have been applied more carefully than what we saw with Pan's Labyrinth and Hairspray in that much more of the fine detail is left intact. In fact, I was extremely impressed with the small object detail and facial detail in mid- and far-ground actors. Textural details (like brick walls and tweed patterns on clothing) might suffer a bit from the grain removal algorithm, but the loss of texture is no where near as much as what is seen on Pan’s Labyrinth and without a point of comparison to the original image, surface textures (like skin and clothing) have satisfying detail from 1.5 screen widths distance.

Does the grain filtering bother me? Absolutely, and I wish it hadn’t been applied at all. However, unlike New Line’s previous discs where the application of DNR also had detrimental impact to high frequency detail and image sharpness, in the case of Dark City, sharpness and small object detail is impressively strong (above average, in fact) and so the picture still manages to convey an extremely satisfying high definition viewing experience. In fact, the only real aesthetic compromise of the grain removal to my eyes is that the image looks too clean and has an almost artificial look about it; it’s certainly not film-like despite the excellent clarity and sense of depth.

My first time through, from my 1.5 screen widths distance (meaning 15 feet back from a 10-foot wide screen, or 9 feet away from a 6-foot wide screen etc.), I noticed no edge ringing or visible halos and concluded that there was no edge enhancement. However, after hearing reports of edge enhancement from other critical viewers I moved my chair up to 0.75 screen widths distance from my 106-inch image and saw some very minor white fringing on a few high-contrast dark objects with hard-edge transitions. One key scene is in the automat. If I looked carefully from this relatively close distance, I could see thin, subtle halos around some of the text labels on the automat doors, and at the end of the sequence there were similar halos around the police officers' dark caps and uniforms against the light colored wall. While this may seem picky, I’ll stress that my early-generation 1080p LCOS projector (JVC HD2K) may be more forgiving of thin halos (DLP viewers might see them pronounced more clearly) and, more importantly, 1080p high definition media supports comfortable viewing distances as close as 0.75 screen widths, replicating how close some viewers choose to sit in motion picture theaters.

Allow me to give voice for a moment to a new and evolving issue with the advent of 1080p media and displays: sitting closer. Even if the 1.5 screen width sweet spot we’ve grown used to with standard definition conceals mastering artifacts in a Blu-ray Disc presentation, high definition viewing needs to maintain transparency to the source down to 0.75 screen widths; 1080p resolution and the film's transfer print allow for a high visual fidelity experience at this viewing angle. Just like we learned that we could sit closer than 8 feet away from our 27-inch TVs when we moved from 480-line interlaced NTSC televisions to progressive-scan displays, properly mastered high definition source material viewed on 1080p displays allows us to sit even closer than from where we’ve been watching up until now. Dark City produces a reasonably transparent viewing experience at 1.5 screen widths from my projected image. However, at closer viewing distances (even just one screen width), the slight halos begin to become visible.

On the bright side… I’ve already touched on sharpness and detail. Those of you who’ve lived with the compromised standard definition DVD picture all these years will be thrilled to know that the muddy, murky, pasty look to the dark areas of the image (which compromise nearly the whole film) is gone. Instead we have perfect clarity, perfect shadow delineation, perfect compression of dark gradients without any hint of compression noise or banding. The result is a silky picture that sinks naturally into deep shadows without any blemish, paint-by-numbers steps in gradients, or video noise. That alone is worth the upgrade to this new Blu-ray Disc. Colors (when present) are also solid and lend a lush, saturated feeling without the appearance of being artificially pumped and without any hint of video noise. Perfect.

The final verdict is that despite the flaws of grain removal and very minor edge sharpening, the image is beautiful, and is a vast improvement over the standard definition DVD; this will impress any high definition viewer on its own merits. Would I have been even happier with the presence of the film’s natural fine film grain? Absolutely. Would the image have been a degree or two more natural without the minor edge sharpening? Sure. Did I absolutely enjoy watching this Blu-ray Disc even given these caveats? Yes. I encourage you to purchase this disc and enjoy the best presentation of this film for the home viewer to-date. Then contact New Line and tell them how you’d like them to improve their high definition mastering even futher.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The losslessly compressed English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 soundtrack presents the soundtrack as transparently as possible. At the moment I’m forced to extract DTS-HD MA soundtracks to 5.1 PCM over HDMI since my Sony Playstation3 can’t bitstream advanced CODECS to my Marantz receiver (which is an HDMI 1.3 receiver and is able to decode both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA). But even in 5.1, the lossless presentation was a revelation over how this movie sounds on standard definition DVD. Musical timbers are especially outstanding.

It’s not a perfect mix however, and all of my complaints reflect recording and mixing choices in the original master created in 1998. My primary criticism is that almost all of the dialogue has an easily identifiable dubbed quality that pulls it out of the acoustic environment of the visual scene. Voices give one the impression of an actor in a sound-booth, surrounded by egg-crate foam, and an audio engineer adding reverb to try to synthesize the space of the onscreen scene. Yes, I know that most movies these days rely on ADR for all of their vocals. However, Dark City really sounds that way, which is what bothered me. And at times the recording level of dialogue seems a bit low in comparison to rest of the mix, although that’s a minor complaint.

Other than the distraction of artificial-sounding dialogue, the musical score, acoustics, and sound effects are beautifully rendered in this mix. The lossless presentation, in particular, really let’s the musical score (by Trevor Jones) shine with an incredible sense of front-to-back depth on some of the sequences. Effects have satisfying bass extension and the eerie ethereal murmuring that’s mixed into the score really heightens the feeling of anxiety and fear in many of the scenes. First time viewers are in for an especially poignant treat.

English SDH captions and Spanish subtitles are provided. There are no other alternate language soundtrack options.

The Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

This Blu-ray Disc release includes all of the bonus material from the concurrent standard definition DVD release along with the key bonus material from the previous DVD editions. The downside is that other than the film’s trailer and image gallery, all of the bonus material is standard definition.

The most notable bonus features are the multiple audio commentaries. If you’re watching the Director’s Cut of the film, you’ll get three commentary options under the banner of Director’s Cut Expanded Commentaries. Director Alex Proyas is the first option, film critic Roger Ebert is the second, and writers Lem Dobbs and David S. Goyer share the third. Both the director’s and Ebert’s commentary tracks specifically reflect this new director’s cut and their comments shed a lot of light. While Ebert naturally can’t contribute information about the planning or motivations for particular scenes or changes, he can talk about the resulting effect, and his comments on film style and camera movements are very revealing. The commentary from the writers is largely recycled from the earlier DVD edition but it’s great to have here nevertheless, and well worth enjoying.

If you opt for the theatrical cut of the film, you’re greeted with a new list of commentary options. The first choice is a track ported over from the previous DVD edition with Proyas, Dobbs and Goyer, DoP Dariusz Wolski, and production designer Patrick Tatopoulos. The commentary isn’t interactive (many of the session were actually recorded apart) but it’s informative and well worth enjoying by any fan. Also included is the original DVD commentary by Ebert, which is probably the best track of all given his passion for the material and astounding insights into the film. It may be odd to say given the breadth of commentary choices to select from, but please make an effort to give this one a listen if you take the time for the commentaries at all. It may be the one time you find yourself watching the original theatrical version!  
 
The other bonus material is also divided into two groups based on which version of the film you choose to view (you’re prompted to pick immediately after the disc loads). As a quick reminder, all of the bonus content is standard definition except for the trailer and image gallery which are presented in 1080p. If you choose to watch the new Director’s cut you’ll be offered three featurettes or documentaries. The first is a quick (five minutes) introduction to the new director’s cut by Alex Proyas and Roger Ebert. Much of what they say is covered in the various commentaries but this does offer a nice overview. The documentary Memories of Shell Beach (43 minutes) covers everything from the original story concept to production and filming. This feature includes lots of interviews with cast and crew and will please any fan. The second documentary (and third bonus item provided for the Director’s Cut version other than commentary) is Architecture of Dreams (34 minutes) which focuses on set design, costuming, and the creation of special effects. Definitely a fan-worthy item. If only it were in HD!

The last item when viewing the director’s cut is an optional pop-up facts window that describes the differences between the original theatrical cut and new Director’s Cut in detail. This basically duplicates the information you’ll hear if you listen to the director’s commentary on this version of the film, but it’s nice for hearing impaired listeners. Sadly, I wasn’t able to use this option and listen to audio commentary at the same time. Selecting this option also forces the film to start over from the beginning so you’re not able to turn it on and off on the fly during disc play. I do not believe that this is a Profile 1.1 PiP feature, but rather a BD-J based graphical or subtitle track that should work on Profile 1.0 players.

If you opt for the theatrical cut, in addition to the cut-specific commentaries you’re also offered a few text bonus items that at first appear deceptively like additional featurettes. There's nothing really inspiring here. You have a short film review by comics author Neil Gaiman, an interesting but also short piece that compares Dark City to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, a 1927 review of Metropolis by H.G. Wells, and another Metropolis review from Weekly Variety. The 1080p high definition image gallery of about 80 photos is interesting in that it includes lots of behind-the-scenes shots, though typical of many image galleries, the images waste inordinate amounts of screen resolution with fancy borders rather than maximizing the size and resolution of the images to fit the 16x9 frame as best they can.

And, thankfully, the original theatrical trailer (2 minutes) is presented in 1080p high definition, although the resulting image quality is a far cry from that of the feature film. It’s not the grain that diminishes the picture quality of the trailer, but the loss of resolution, color fidelity, and proper grayscale tracking from being so many generations removed from the negative.

The last item is the Digital Copy version of the film for downloading to portable devices. I dislike this for two reasons. First, it seems an excessive waste of resources to produce an entirely separate disc for a feature that only a small percentage of disc purchasers will use. Second, we had a reader write in to confirm that the digital copy version on this disc isn’t compatible with Apple portable devices like iPods or iPhones. One might be tempted to ask, “What’s the point of a portable version of anything that’s not compatible with iPods or other Mac portables?” Fox’s digital copy versions appear to work on both Mac and PC platforms so I’m baffled why New Line couldn’t achieve this very basic (and obvious) requirement.

Final Thoughts

A fantastic film. After Blade Runner, and before The Matrix, there was Dark City. Despite some grain filtering, this Blu-ray Disc delivers an image that is breathtaking and stomps all over the standard definition DVD edition. Bonus features leave nothing out that was offered on any other media platform, although, sadly, only the image galleries and theatrical trailers are presented in high definition. Great movie, great picture, lossless sound, and decent special features make this an absolute recommendation.


Here’s a note about the apparent duplicate Buy Guide.  Our I.T. people are still hard at work on a large project and have not yet had the time to modify the underlying site database formatting code to accommodate the new 0-to-10 rating scales.  So until they do, for HD on disc, I’ll insert this note and a Buy Guide at the end of the review text and leave the conventional 0-to-5 Buy Guide blank.