About as good as sci-fi can get now that the genre is getting crusty.

Rating: 8/10 (5 June 2000)

I have heard so many people say "I didn't want to see this," or "I had low expectations..." But I have a different outlook when it comes to sci-fi films. Yes, most are boring pap, and, yes, most aren't worth the time or the money, but I can still hope, can't I?!
Director Dave Twohy's The Arrival is certainly one of my favorite sci-fi/conspiracy films ever made. Interesting direction, a great, tight script, and good acting (yes, you heard me: Charlie Sheen does a good job!) put it way over the top. So it disappointed me that it didn't do so well at the box office. Twohy's back in the director's chair again (although with Nightmare on Elm Street 3 scribes the Wheat brothers this time.) I placed high expectations on Pitch Black after seeing one TV spot; after hearing Twohy's name, I knew it would be great. I wasn't disappointed!
The premise is as follows: a ship full of people in deep-freeze (including one cunning, violent criminal,) are being transported through space. After crash landing on a strange planet, the tension builds. I know it doesn't sound too engaging, but it is. Upon landing, murderer Riddick (played wonderfully diabolically by Vin Diesel) escapes. The crew finds that they have even larger problems to deal with when the three suns of the planet go through an almost month-long eclipse and seemingly nocturnal alien predators come out to play.
As I mentioned before, I really liked Twohy's direction in The Arrival. But it looks childish compared to the techniques in Pitch Black. The three aforementioned suns are different colours and, depending on where the camera is facing, so is the film tint. Twohy also gets some rather good performances out of Vin Diesel and Radha Mitchell (Fry). I had never heard of Mitchell before Pitch Black and came straight home to look her up here on the IMDB. I was surprised to find out that she was the naive-yet-grown-up first time lesbian Syd in High Art; what a stretch! She's great in High Art being the uneducated underdog, and seems comfortable and natural in Pitch Black as the take-charge Fry. But we don't care about sci-fi films for the acting, do we?
The Wheat Brothers' script is well-realized and adds a small but welcome plot twist near the end. You will expect certain characters to die and you will probably be wrong since the film is more worried with getting the protagonists off of the planet than with what "type" to kill off in order. The film also has a wonderful, surprise climax that, in my opinion, turns these annoying Alien comparisons on their head (really, the men do most of the fighting, not the in-charge woman.)
Certainly, the sci-fi genre is running shallow. With the exception of The Matrix, it's getting to be about as fun as playing with a used condom. And there are certainly many Alien (or Aliens) clones, but I don't believe that Pitch Black is one of them. It may have a strong female lead, a good, cohesive script, and excellent direction like Alien, but it still holds up as rather fresh and individual. And if you don't walk away with a crush on Radha Mitchell, than there's something VERY wrong with you!