The extremely fast cuts, the lazy eyes and Philip K. Dick

I really enjoyed this movie particularly b/c it had fast cuts which never made it boring to watch.

The dialogue is spot on with no ambiguity, but whispered in some parts that may be hard to hear but are nonetheless, poignant.

Do yourself a favor and turn on the Subtitles. That's what I do when a movie is this fast paced. Read the story on one viewing and then enjoy it the next viewing knowing what they actually said. My two cents.

Totally disagree with you. Have you ever seen a Tony Scott film. Now those are quick cuts. I don't recall Dark City having many quick cuts in it and I've seen it at least 30 times.

No decorative themes? Film had an awesome Art Deco look to it. Everything in this film concerning look and lighting were memorable. The look is based of off peoples memories that lived in the city. That is how they came up with a mix of 40's to 90's look.

Rufus Sewell does have a bit of a lazy eye. How does that detract from the film?

No dialogue telling the story??? Watch the directors cut. It more than explains everything thats going on

The quick cuts are deliberate. Until near the end, he has no real idea what is going on or who he really is and, thanks to those quick cuts, you feel the same way. In other words, it's an artistic choice so as to try and recreate Murdoch's amnesia and fugitive status for the audience.

Also, I think you are reaching with the lazy eye theory. Sewell just happened to have one and, had anyone else been cast as Murdoch instead, we wouldn't be discussing this. Not to mention, although eyes are important in "Blade Runner", they are the glowing kind not lazy eyed. I think the fact that they glow is because of what Tyrell said("The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long.") and the phrase, "Eyes are the windows to the soul." i.e. if both these sayings are true, then a Replicant would seem to have glowing eyes because it is their "soul" burning brighter than a normal human's. In other words, yet again, it was an artistic choice by the director to subtly show the audience how the Replicants were "more human than human".

It'll be like Luke Duke and the other guy.
Really?
Yeah.
NO!

I love the fast pace of the movie. It's probably one of the most unique things about it. It makes a "slow" movie feel like it's moving a million miles an hour. So cool.



" Super Bowl XLVIII will be most evenly-matched Super Bowl in 32 years"- AH_Fan

Intentional or not, the jarring sequences of short snippets (show a wall, guy walks away, show a building etc) comes across as stilted to me.

It's the result of shooting at the (then new) Fox Studio lot in Sydney which was very small for the "outdoor" sequences of this film. It shows a lack of confidence in the cinematography caused by the shortcomings of the sets and/or CGI. So if the sequence is short enough, you won't see the "strings".

The end result is a film that struggles to cohesively tie the scenes together smoothly. It's as though the director's previous experience was solely TV commercials or music-videos.

The trivia page mentions that this film has the shortest average shot lengths of any modern film -- only 1.8 seconds!

This is probably partly from the director's background in music videos, as mentioned before, and partly as a style to enhance the disorienting atmosphere. I think it works, but it does make the movie draining to watch, in my opinion. The director's cut feels like it has a slightly relaxed pace -- very slightly. The opening scene is probably the most atmospheric part in the DC, establishing the place and tone in a less hyperactive way. It's only once Murdoch wakes that the film becomes almost unbearably disorienting.

As for having short cuts to hide the production design... I call b.s. on that. The production design has been almost universally praised as brilliant. I tend to agree... that's why The Matrix recycled the sets rather than build their own.