Time for a switch

Rating: 8/10 (22 August 2004)

"Pitch Black" is a visually-dazzling sci-fi thriller that pretends to be the same as most "Alien" knockoffs, but is instead something else altogether. It dares to be excellent in the face of intense criticism - those who contend that the film owes a lot to its predecessors, which indeed it does - may eat their own words when they see what an excellent job was done with the story.
Though "Pitch Black" surprised many audiences in 2000, it was met with a lot of mixed praise; I didn't pay much attention to it and the hype surrounding the movie had soon faded from my attention. When the "Pitch Black - Unrated Director's Cut" DVD was released just a few months ago as to rake in pennies from the inevitable hype for "The Chronicles of Riddick," my interest was renewed.
"Chronicles" chronicled the downfall of summer movies (I wasn't going to see it anyway, but the free ticket that came with the "Pitch Black" DVD burned a whole in my wallet; plus the movie was dumbed down to "PG-13" from an original "R" rating, meaning that more scenes of character development and graphic violence were removed to cater to teenage fanboys). The best thing to be said about "Chronicles" really, was that the production design and visual effects were quite impressive.
"Pitch Black" offers something more in the way of characters, that you actually care about them and when you rooted for that bad ass Riddick (Vin Diesel), those feelings were genuine. You actually got scared when all the lights went out and the small band of survivors led by Riddick and the unwilling captain of the downed spaceship (Radha Mitchell) had to make it to safety in total blackness because bloodthirsty, nocturnal creatures were on their tail the whole time.
The director, David N. Twohy, created a beautiful, nightmarish place - this sun-scorched desert planet that's roasted for an undetermined amount of time by not one, not two, but three suns. Twohy was a master with "Pitch Black," especially since his only previous directorial effort was the alien invasion thriller "The Arrival," with Charlie Sheen, back in 1996.
The characters in "Pitch Black" aren't fodder for the monsters; they're people with real feelings and emotions. You feel sympathy for Radha Mitchell's character, who quickly finds herself stuck in a really nasty situation and is also the unwilling leader of these survivors. And though this should be her movie, it's really Vin Diesel's, who would go on four years later to make "Chronicles," which really has nothing to do with this film, as it is more influenced by the subculture (comics, cartoons, etc.) that has amassed around the character since 2000.
"Pitch Black," despite some of its minor flaws (some pacing problems, a little uneven storytelling), is still a remarkable film nonetheless and I'm sure it's destined for some kind of cult status.
8/10