Very Well Done!!!

Rating: 10/10 (22 October 2000)

In the late 1990's and early 2000's some movies had been made which seemed to try to imitate the greats of science fiction, Lost In Space and Supernova are just two examples of these poor copy-cats.
Pitch Black just sitting there on the rental shelf seemed to have a dangerous chance of being one of these duds, but I took the risk anyway. I am glad I did, because I was dead wrong.
Pitch Black is one of the best sci-fi movies I have ever seen. Combining great acting, great storyline, and great action, Pitch Black makes for a high quality, satisfying, non-cheesy, flick. Cheesy being what so many sci-fi movies have come to be.
Up-and-coming Vin Diesel as Riddick quietly steals the scene. An escaped convict being taken back to the slam, Riddick begins the film with his narration, his cyro-sleep speech, if you will. Diesel's deep, almost mysterious voice absolutely sucks you into the time and place, setting the stage beautifully. And when he escapes after the crash landing, one thing everyone wanted to do was find him, not necessarily to meet him, but to lock him up again. At one point our dear friend, Paris, is driven, for certain reasons, from his comfy lawn chair. As he is talking to the others you suddenly notice that Riddick, unbeknownst to the others, is sitting in Paris's lawn chair, enjoying Paris's beverages. It was Riddick who told Fry to look deeper in the hole for Zeek. It was Riddick who had the simply spoken statements bringing what the others dared not think, to words (All you people are so scared of me, most days I would take that as a compliment, but it ain't me you gotta worry about now.)
Fry was great. A courageous young woman trying to, at all costs, get of the desert planet. Her guilt for trying to drop the live cargo (namely human beings) to save her own skin is what motivates her to do everything in her power to save the survivors.
Johns, who was taking Riddick back to the slam, was a flat out jerk, or as Riddick put it "a blue eyed devil." He was meant to be a jerk, and boy was he ever, a well acted jerk at that.
Shazza, Zeek, Paris, and the Middle Easterners were very well acted, as were all the above characters. All of them well developed, well portrayed people.
Don't get me started on the kid, Jack. Jack tried too hard, but you will find Jack very interesting.
The storyline held my attention, I didn't find a need to ask myself any questions as the video was rewinding. The plot was airtight.
The movie belonged to Vin Diesel, Fry or no Fry. He didn't take over the movie, making the others appear miniscule, as could have easily been done. He was fantastic. I do believe that he just might be the next Arnold, who didn't exactly play a Conan the Destroyer in his come-back movie, End of Days. His character, Riddick, was very believable.
Gore was minimal in the rated version What was there was not bad, granted it was gross. A friend of mine, who has seen Alien numerous times, always starts watching it pretty early on in the evening, so she'll have time for the second movie she always needs on Alien nights just to go to sleep. This is nothing like THAT. The one scene that made me go all out and declare "Oh yuck!" was when, or rather how, Riddick escaped the second time. Tied, hands behind back, to a pole that didn't quite reach the ceiling, there was only one means of escape. Purposely dislocating, then relocating, his shoulders, I believe, up and over, he was free. (Oh yuck!)
The editing was beautifully done, quick, not dragging. One minute you see Shazza staring at the general place in the hole where Zeek met his end, and where he no longer was, the next minute you see Riddick looking emotionlessly at Shazza, and the next minute you see Riddick racing away.
Pitch Black is a GREAT movie!!! Totally worth the rent, or buy, or whatever. Just don't watch it in the pitch black.