Uneven, but unforgettable

Rating: Null/10 (21 July 2001)

I just read many of the previous comments on this film, and I agree with most of the positive *and* negative ones. The editing is tight; the pacing is perfect; the visuals are beautiful, atmospheric, and menacing; the performances are convincing. All in all, I just can't completely pan this film... but I also can't seem to get completely past the snippets of jarringly god-awful dialogue, the continuity errors (for example: the creatures were fine in very faint light at some points, but in others it kept them at bay) and the fundamental reliance on palpably contrived plot devices. Just once, I'd like to see a party of survival-hopefuls include a character with a superhuman talent that *isn't* completely appropriate to the set-up. Inclusion of a character with night-vision in this movie was just too 'deus ex machina' for my taste.
There were moments when the director tried to deviate from cliche, and it's too bad that those attempts were so obvious - the self-conscious aspirations only underlined the fact that the movie was working on a foundation of cliche. It remains a very compelling film, but it could have been better. "Pitch Black" was almost close to being a classic.