A decent sci-fi B-movie

Rating: 9/10 (9 October 2016)

Finally, after years of cheap and rubbish ALIENS rip-offs, comes one that is actually pretty darned good for a change. Despite being unreleased for about a year in this country, and with its fair share of plot holes and flaws, PITCH BLACK still manages to be one of the most impressive science fiction films in a long time. Although a pure B-movie at heart, PITCH BLACK impresses us with some wonderful photography, strong acting, and characterisations, and, for once, an imaginative script which throws in many inventive touches as it goes along.
It's action right from the start as the film opens with one of the most tense, prolonged, and realistic spaceship crashes in a long time. The special effects here are adequate, although strained by the budget. Once the survivors group together on the planet's surface and decide to explore, here the fun really begins. The suspense is racked up to breaking point, making this relatively quiet first half pretty damn tense, as the viewer is aware that the survivors are not alone, and it takes a long time (and a few deaths) for them to realise this. Due to the wealth of action and different situations, even with a relatively long running time this stuff never becomes boring.
Once the aliens show themselves (in a scene where the lead character is repeatedly put in danger but just manages to escape) the thrills and chills are heightened further. The plot twist of having an eclipse suddenly occur has already been stolen in the cheesy FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 2, but it's still a good one in any case. There's a taught NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD-inspired scene where the remaining survivors huddle inside the crashed ship as the aliens mass outside, trying to get in. The final third takes the form of an immense trip on foot through the desert to reach a working spaceship, and offers up most of the fun as our character's lighting begins to fail bit by bit, until they are left in "pitch black" by a string of unlucky accidents.
There are some many horrific scenes in this film that it's hard to pick the best, although I did especially like the moment (shown in the trailer) where a character lights a torch quickly to see himself surrounded by the aliens, before it going out again just as suddenly. The squelchy sound effects do the rest of the work for us. The desert landscape of Australia is put to good use, with the bleached photography achieving the same realistic sun-scorched effect as in THREE KINGS. Indeed, the photography (whether in the bright light or in the dark) is excellent throughout, and one of the film's strong points.
The acting, too, is pretty good, and the fact that the film lacks famous faces makes it all the better. Radha Mitchell - an ex-NEIGHBOURS actress, if you would believe it - makes for a tough, likable and resourceful heroine, and one of the best female roles in a sci-fi movie in a while. Keith David pops up in a role as an Arab, and is as good as ever. I'm happy to say that he actually survives in this film. Cole Hauser (son of Wings) creates a believable, three-dimensional bastard in Johns, the film's most hateable character. However, acting honours go to Vin Diesel, playing the imposing escaped convict. Despite having surgically-altered eyes so he can see in the dark, a shaved head and imposing bulk, Diesel still manages to make his killer a likable character with a hard edge, and succeeds as an action hero.
The CGI effect of the large aliens are generally pretty good, with the well-designed creatures being most menacing, especially when seen in a half light. One thing I didn't like were the tiny flying aliens which just look like a blob of CGI in close-up. There's a fair smattering of (computer generated) gore for horror fans, with heads and bodies being ripped apart in very brief shots. There are also some fun p.o.v. shots from the aliens' and Diesel's perspectives which are nice to look at. I'm pleased to say that director David Twohy (who also make the pretty good alien invasion flick, THE ARRIVAL) has succeeded again in making an enjoyable movie; one which is suspense, horrifying and exciting in equal measures, and should be seen at once by all genre fans as a breath of fresh air in today's cinema.