Effective B-movie

Rating: 8/10 (10 June 2004)

PITCH BLACK delivers on several levels. Imaginative FXs, thrilling concept, excellent cinematography and good actors. But this is a B-movie nonetheless, not that there's anything wrong with that. The thing that keeps this from being a grade A movie is the constant use of cheesy excuses for stretching the story, the lack of focus on certain aspects of the story, the director's attempts to make the movie look groovy (distortion in images, etc) and the sometimes cheap looking sets (for instance, some seats looked like they were bought at Office Depot). But the whole movie still works, thanks mainly to the director's respect for sci-fi genre, but more importantly, because of the presence of Vin Diesel, who literally became a star after playing Riddick. Vin steals the movie and his excellent performance elevates what could have been a standard sci-fi B-movie into an above average sci-fi B-movie. Juxtaposing the menacing flying aliens with the dangerous character of Riddick was a brilliant idea. As Riddick keeps saying, "it ain't me you should be worrying about."
The actors were mostly all good, certainly the top trio, Vin, Radha Mitchell and Cole Hauser. All three actors made a good impression, even though the movie clearly belongs to Vin.
As for the flying aliens, they basically look like THE BIRDS on steroids. They're effective but not 100% menacing. The main problem with them is they're rarely the same size throughout the movie. For instance, at the beginning, the alien creatures look very small when they killed the woman but later on during the film, the creatures suddenly look bigger and more ALIEN-like.
But this is just some minor details to be expected from a B-movie. All in all, PITCH BLACK is a nifty little sci-fi movie that mostly deliver and is worth watching. I even bought the DVD after renting it a couple of years ago.