All lights-off for ALIENS lite.

Rating: 6/10 (21 June 2008)

My Take: Derivative yet entertaining.
Slick but inferior, David Twohy's PITCH BLACK, even with its slickness, is just another monster movie, and quite a decent one at that. Although it won't break the sci-fi barrier, even if it doesn't have an A-list cast and even without some great special effects work, it makes for a worthy twist to the age-old ALIENS formula. You know the set-up, a spaceship-load of passengers crash land on a desolate planet system. Without the benefits of communication and refuge, they are forced to fight for their lives against the planets hostile inhabitants, this in case, ALIEN lookalikes.
To benefit from the charisma of the lead character of the ALIEN films, PITCH BLACK also has a female heroine to lead the brigade of survivors. She's Carolyn Fry (Radha Mitchell) who assists a batch of plucky to bad-ass characters, including a convict named Riddick (Vin Diesel) who plays hero later on in the picture. They arrive on a bizarre world which has a strange weather condition: It's approaching a season where everything gets dark. The time where the planet's inhabitants, strange creeping Alien-types, start crawling out of their crawl-spaces and stalk everyone. You know the rest! There's not much plot to speak of, as the film goes on as a typical creature-feature then on. But the movie is not nearly as bad as it might be. Derivative enough, PITCH BLACK still satisfies as an enjoyable attraction, even as a simple time-passer. Diesel is a satisfying anti-hero, who actually proves he can act. He's cold and emotionless, but I guess that's a plus. There's no character development whatsoever, even if the film spends enough time with them. The plot is empty and derivative, but as a creature feature, the film is slick and enjoyable. Even if it's not quite as unbearably seat-gripping as those in ALIENS, Twohy manages to create suspense in the most unexpected of places. There's enough action and decent acting to provide a sufficiently enjoyable action fare.
Rating: *** out of 5.