You want to see Pitch Black? Just turn your TV off.

Rating: 3/10 (2 August 2011)

Right from the opening I knew I was going to end up hating "Pitch Black" just because I have a unfair lack of interest for the sci-fi genre. So we're in a space shuttle and everything seems all futuristic and weird, the camera's making a lot of use out of the hand-held, shake to create a feeling of panic and we crash land on this deserted planet with three suns, creating an extremely off-putting filter, you'll be wishing it would just hurry up and turn pitch black!
The filters are really awful and in bad taste, the range from an over exposed goldy filter to a strange black and white looking blue filter which doesn't really make sense, it's as if the directors just putting them there because he can. We are then introduced to far too many characters that we lose track of and therefore don't particularly care about! The least one being the "hero" Riddick, played by the lack-luster Vin Diesal who thinks that he looks cool by wearing swimming goggles in the middle of the desert! I thought he was about to jump into a pool or something! Anyway, he's annoying and egotistical there's no way we can like him especially as the other characters make out he's the bad guy anyway!
After a long wait (about an hour) the film eventually revs up a bit, the planet plunges into darkness so we can get rid of the blinding filters and we're treated to poorly animated aliens and the film then plays out as one big rip-off of "Aliens" in the dark! This swarm of creatures attack the group as we egg them on to, however Imust admit there were times of excitement and some parts were well-paced.
But when all is said and done "Pitch Black" is "Aliens" with a clunky screenplay and just plain weird directing! It's full of unlikable characters and an empty ending. Although there are times of suspense and exciting action, there needs to be more substance to find it engaging.