Good science-fiction adventure

Rating: 7/10 (17 March 2018)

A crippled spaceship lands on a planet with three suns that only experiences darkness once every 22 years, things come out in the dark, and the crew must fight for survival, or die - that pretty much sums up "Pitch Black". The concept of a planet bathed in (almost) continuous light was the premise of Asimov's classic short story "Nightfall", but rather than being our own worst enemy, the "Pitch Black" planet is home to fierce, flying nocturnal carnivores. As space adventures go, this one is pretty good. The look of the glaringly illuminated desert planet is very well done and the various backgrounds (the bone filled canyon and the hollow towers for example) look great. The acting is what one would expect for this kind of movie, lots of gruff tough-guy posturing, semi-comic relief from the less-heroic characters, and the usual alien-chow that only live long enough to establish the threat. Vin Diesel's 'Riddick' character was so popular that he front-lined a couple of less-than-stellar 'sequels', but I didn't find that he was any more interesting that the rest of the main cast. Of course, the raison d'etre for this kind of film are the aliens, which, although usually only seen briefly, in the shadows, or through Riddick's enhanced eyes, are excellent. The plot does hang on some coincidences such as the crash occurring just hours before one of the rare eclipses and the abandoned geology base having an orrery (a somewhat archaic tool for an interplanetary mission) that conveniently explains the whole three-sun eclipse scenario, but those are minor problems in an otherwise pretty good story.