Lights Out on Pitch Black

Rating: 6/10 (19 February 2000)

After reading a few of the comments made by people who'd seen advance screenings of this film, I had a glimmer of hope that Pitch Black might be decent enough to recommend. Well, that hope waned considerably thirty minutes into the film and disappeared altogether before it was even half over. I have no idea why this film was released in its current state. It has an annoyingly unfinished quality about it, and comes off looking more like an extended trailer than a finished product.
The premise of Pitch Black is as basic and linear as you can get, which is actually a good thing because a more complex storyline is too restrictive for this kind of film. What we have are a group of crash survivors stranded on a barren planet who must now find another way home. Their dilemma is compounded by an untimely total eclipse, which releases legions of hideous nocturnal aliens from beneath the surface of the planet. Now, this situation could (or rather should) make for some real suspense, but Pitch Black fails to mine it to its full potential and consequently the scare factor goes way down.
The acting in this film is mediocre at best. Since most of the characters are expendable (ie: bait) they are pretty much spared any characterization. Personally I don't care for this. It would be much more effective, I feel, to have a well-developed character or two die than half a dozen static ones. Sure it takes a lot more work to write this kind of script, but the result would be far more rewarding. As for Vin Diesel being such a good actor in Pitch Black, anyone could play Riddick's character and stand out simply because his is the only one that's fleshed out to any degree.
As for the special effects in Pitch Black, they are strangely minimalistic for this type of film. The creatures are pseudo-Giger and ultimately very unscary for we don't really get to see them until the very end, and even then it's more of a prolonged glimpse than anything. The only effect that really impressed me in this film was the actual eclipse, with the hordes of aliens erupting from their subterranean lair against the backdrop of fading light. Very cool. But overall, the effects were nothing to scream about.

So I left Pitch Black disappointed. And so did the people sitting around me. I overheard one of them mutter, "I knew I should have gone to see the Boiler Room instead."