Worth seeing on the big screen.(minor spoilers)

Rating: 8/10 (20 February 2000)

I know that there are many comparisons to the film "ALIENS" being mentioned by other commentors, and rightly so since the premise is very similar: small band of people vs. hostile life forms. So I bet your saying "seen one, seen 'em all". Well don't be quick to judge this movie. There are a lot of different elements that come into play that I think work well to keep you on edge and guessing.
You probably already know the plot so I'll skip that part. The opening crash landing of the Hunter-Gratzner is well done. All the characters come together to take stock in their situation. Right at this point, their biggest concerns are finding water and the escaped criminal Riddick. Very soon it becomes apparent that Riddick is the least of their worries.
I 'm not going to disclose anymore story details because I think that anything else would take away the question of "what do they do now?"

I liked the characters and appreciated the little twists of "appearances can be deceiving" atmosphere that slowly developes. Even Vin Diesel's character of Riddick could easily be played over the top in so many different ways - to the point of annoying distraction - but that doesn't happen. You'll end up liking him without a doubt.
The SFX is about what you would expect for a movie of this type. The planet's indigenous life forms are mostly CGI rendered and I think were designed by Patrick Tatapolous - of GODZILLA fame. They are nasty creatures and with the addition of lightning fast speed, they have voracious appetites for crash survivors. My only complaint about the movie is:
{SPOILER ALERT}
There are thousands of these creatures out roaming the planet during the eclipse. At first, they are always near and harassing the survivors, but later - they aren't even around for the many times that a survivor puts themselves into a position where they are vulnerable to attack. It seemed a little inconsistent to me. This was probably due to the fact that there were several ongoing character conflicts that were adding to the tension. In a way, this made the threat of the creatures less significant to me, and less scary as well. When I think of "terror in the dark" I think of scenes like in the movie THE RESURRECTED where the dark dungeon swallows up the light and conceals the real danger until it jumped out at you. To me, I don't think that movie played with the basic human emotion of fear of the dark - enough.
{END SPOILER}
Other than that, I enjoyed everything else. I also loved the fact that the film was 2 hours long. It seems like lately 90 to 100 minutes was all that people were making.
On a scale of 1-10, I give this an 8. "More scary" would have given it a 10 (but it's close)