Fun in the Dark

Rating: Null/10 (8 April 2000)

Within a minute of watching Pitch Black, my shoulders began creeping up to my ears. Tension. Something goes very wrong in space, and there's a riveting sequence of action before our castaways crash on a planet where more will go wrong. You just know more will go wrong.

Not the least of our problems in a psycho murderer (Vin Diesel) who's being transported back to a prison colony, and of course, he's on the loose after the crash. But, is he more of a threat than the monsters inhabiting the planet???
The cool thing about the characters in Pitch Black is that no one is what they appear to be in the beginning of the film. You think they're going to be the stereotypical hero, villain, damsel, kid and comic relief. Each role is shredded over the course of the film, either literally by the monsters or figuratively by some sort of revelation about the character.

Most of the lukewarm reviews of Pitch Black say it draws too much storyline from films like the Alien series. Well, I've never seen any of the Alien films. And I really didn't see much of a storyline anyway. Group of people, dangerous place, some live/some die, the end! It's a beautiful formula. Anyone can use it, but you have to produce it with style. Director David Twohy is fortunate to have a very talented cinematographer (David Eggby) who does interesting things with movement when the crew is in space and with the atmosphere on the surface of the planet, which has three suns.
I liked the ensemble, especially Vin Diesel as Richard Riddick. He gets all the good one liners, is smoldering but incredibly cool and has eye implants so he can see in the dark. Now, THERE'S a bonus on a planet that's about to experience a full eclipse! He gets a buff nine on my sigh scale. Radha Mitchell is our plucky femme fatale. She's a tiny thing with a will of steel, who aptly supplies heart to their desolate situation.
Pitch Black is a fun ride, as long as you don't expect to be enlightened. Some rough language plus some violence and a few scares equal an R rating. Good acting, taut action scenes and cinematic style add up to 3 Â½ on my scale. Recommended!