t's the year 2009 and a group of genetically enhanced children have just escaped from a research facility in the Wyoming mountains. One of them, Max (Alba), falls into a hole in the ice as she is fleeing. She evades the guards by hiding under the snow, but gets separated from her fellow fugitives in the process.
Fast-forward ten years to 2019. An electromagnetic pulse has wiped out all computer records and digital information. Money is scarce and corruption rampant. Max is now 19 and working as a bike messenger in Seattle. She moonlights as a thief to support her ongoing search for the others of her kind.
One night she breaks into a luxurious high-rise apartment to steal an expensive figurine. Her would-be victim turns out to be, as Max sarcastically calls him, a "famous underground pirate cyber-journalist," who goes by the name Eyes Only. Max is caught in mid-heist by his bodyguard, but manages to make her escape through a glass window.
Eyes Only is Logan Cale (Weatherly), a rich do-gooder who uses his extensive computer resources to research Max's past. He discovers her secret and confronts her with it. He offers to help her track down the others in exchange for protecting a woman who has agreed to testify against a dangerous criminal boss. But Max wants nothing to do with it.
She has a change of heart, however, when she sees a news report showing an attack on Logan and his charge in front of the courthouse. Logan is wounded and the woman's daughter is kidnapped. Against her better judgment, Max enters the hero business, setting out to single-handedly rescue the girl and take down the villain.
More style than substance
One thing can definitely be said of this series: it is easy on the eyes. The pilot episode, directed by former X-Files and Roswell executive producer David Nutter, is visually stunning. In one sequence we see Max standing atop Seattle's famous Space Needle, as a dystopic future panorama expands below and around her. Taking its visual cues from The Matrix (but then what science fiction series doesn't, these days?) Dark Angel features slick action sequences and stylish heroes with impossibly fast moves. Alba herself is sexy and nimble, but unfortunately she can't get by on looks alone.
The main problem is that Alba doesn't breath any life into the character of Max. She's too cool, too perfect. Her range of delivery extends from flat to monotone. It doesn't help that she's given dialogue that's supposed to sound like hip future-speak (try counting the number of times she uses the word whack) but that just comes off awkward. Some of Max's lines are wince-inducing, such as this little gem: "I would have come sooner, but I didn't."
In an ironic programming twist, Dark Angel is scheduled to air opposite the WB's Angel. At first glance, the two shows have a lot in common. Both eponymous characters are loners with a dark secret, who use their superhuman abilities to fight evil. But that is where the similarities end. While Angel never takes itself or its characters too seriously, Dark Angel is weighted down with earnestness. It needs to find a lighter tone in future episodes to avoid becoming a casualty of its own self-importance.
