a type of film we haven't seen in a long while

Rating: 10/10 (21 February 2000)

Have we all slipped so far that we fail to acknowledge actual meanings in movies? Have we forgotten that not all movies (specifically sci-fi movies) are restricted simply to tell a story? I think we have had too many films that are simply that-just a story (be it simple kid stuff like Independence Day or even "adult" stuff as .say, The Boiler Room).no actual theme. We thought that meanings and ideas are only conveyed in silly pseudo-intellectual [inmho, anyway] spike lee type movies. Well, I for one applaud Point Black for being that different-a deeper film with monster-action visuals that seems to distract most. Watching story-only movies has caused us to forget to actually even realize that there is a deeper meaning in a movie we watch.especially a "silly" science fiction movie.
Well, simply put, I believe this is one of the best science fiction movies (if not movie period) to come along in a while. I simply love the characterizations that were shown...how we see actual growth. The characters are not all that they were or what they were portrayed to be in the beginning. The central characters are all vividly depicted, and with exception to the obvious monster-fodder, we actually feel content with how they mature. I guess what I liked is how the archetypal roles (the leader, the gun-toting hero, the bad guy, the idiot, et al) of like monster movies weren't always who you pegged them to be in Pitch Black. Anyway.I really like THE major growth of Fry and Riddick. I like how it all came full circle for her especially.
And again, while there were the obvious monster-fodder, the film completely lends itself as an ensemble movie that instills the idea that each castaway was important. Because of this, I think the casting of relative unknowns was in fact justified. A review I read referenced John Carpenter's Thing remake as correlating to this idea of the characters not being expendable, as they most often are in like movies.
There were comparisons to Mimic and Leviathan.but I don't believe those comparisons were justified. Again, I believe those comparisons are an example how the setting and the visuals were in fact distracting. I'm not saying the visuals weren't bad in the least, or even anything less of great. but I'm thinking people focused on that and only saw that alone. In my humble opinion, they could have taken away the spaceships, the monsters, the aliens, the surgically enhanced night vision eyes.and it still would have been the same movie to me. It could have easily been set on Mt. Everest with a modern-day plane crash, instead of a wayward spaceship, and it wouldn't have been a different movie. I resent the invalidation of this film as being just an Alien-type movie.
Well, basically, Pitch Black had the old idea of survival, with an incredible, interesting and refreshing portrayal. Despite others' ignorance of the long lost art of character development in a special effects movie, I whole heatedly recommend this film.