Excellent Sci-Fi flick that doesnt bite Alien too hard....

Rating: 9/10 (18 February 2000)

I had my doubts. Another space movie with people trying to dodge bloodthirsty aliens. I kept thinking back to Outer Space movies like Event Horizon and Alien 3 and wondered why I was giving this tired genre yet another shot at winning me over. I must admit that I was more than pleasantly surprised after I saw Pitch Black. My first thought upon sitting down in the theatre was that the 3 or so movie previews that I saw would have summed up the best parts in the movie, but not in this case. The movie doesnt fall prey to starting slowly and ending quickly as most Space thrillers do (Before you shake your head no, think of the last couple space movies you saw...zzzzz) Pitch Black jumps you right into the action.. Good performances by a virtually unknown cast (at least to me). With the exception of Vin Diesel and Keith David, I didnt much recognize many of the other thespians' roles in movies except for some bit parts. The movie has some excellent special effects but doesnt fall prey to overusing them like in Event Horizon or (to a lesser extreme) Supernova. Overall, this movie has repeat watching written all over it. It isnt the best Ive ever seen, but it did what most others fail at doing.....It entertained me.