Bright lights in pitch black surroundings!

Rating: 8/10 (8 January 2001)

"Pitch Black" was a nice surprise for me! The story of this freight (space) craft that has a "malfunction" in deep space and crashes on an unfriendly, no, make that hostile, planet - leaving a couple of survivors stranded to fight it out with the "restless natives" - isn't very new. But the way it's told! Wow!
The characters don't really grow too much during the movie's run time, but their hidden secrets/angst is well written into the various personalities that are tossed together at random after the crash landing. Some pretty good acting helps here as well.
What really made this movie a 8/10 for me, was the pace, the cinematography, the editing and the breath taking visuals (CG and others). This movie is an example of making good use of small means - "Pitch Black" uses the desert planet to great effect, and the idea with the three suns is perfect. Not to mention the wonderfully aggressive monsters...
It's also eventually the success of the truly collaborative (and creative!) effort by all the involved people, from director Twohy and on. Nice work indeed, and a fresh new entry to the "monster sci-fi" genre!!!