Okay concept expanded to good movie

Rating: 8/10 (26 March 2001)

Pitch Black isn't really a classic, but it takes a basic science fiction
scenario that's been done to death since Alien in a lot of low-grade B- and Z-movies, and makes it a fairly high-budget decent production with good characterization of most of the players. van Diesel is the definite star and a definite anti-hero (not a villain, really, although people often confuse the two). The rest of the cast isn't really that well developed, and there are some gaps in characterizations (Johns in particular is never really drawn convincingly enough to explain his eventual betrayal).
The alien monsters are well-done, although one wonders why the evolved a sensitivity to light on a light-intense planet. There are some other plot holes, such as the fact that the original colony had lights that weren't solar-powered: how'd they all get killed? And sometimes the characters can move around quite easily. Riddick gets from the cave to the colony pretty easily with no lights, and Fry does the same with one puny little light. And they both get _back_ to the cave. But on the way back with Imam and Jackie they have no end of problems.
Still, the movie moves along at a pretty good clip, and there's no character so weak that it really flaws apart. Overall, I'd recommend it to fans of the genre. It's more action-adventure and horror with sci-fi trappings, though.