Pitch Black

Rating: 7/10 (21 May 2007)

All I knew about this film was that it was the first time you saw the bald, goggle wearing and dark loving anti-hero, and the star that made him became bigger soon after. Basically a space transport vessel, the "Hunter-Gratzner", has an accident in a meteor storm, and crashes on a desert planet. The remaining survivors, led by pilot Carolyn Fry (Phone Booth's Radha Mitchell), with bounty hunter William J. Johns (Cole Hauser), religious man Abu "Imam" Al-Walid (Volcano's Keith David), Antiques dealer Paris P. Ogilvie (Lewis Fitz-Gerald), runaway teenage girl Jack/Jackie (Rhiana Griffith), settlers John 'Zeke' Ezekiel (John Moore) and his lover Sharon 'Shazza' Montgomery (Farscape's Claudia Black). But the key survivor who has an idea of how to get off the planet, before they are killed by either the giant flesh eating alien bugs, or the oncoming eclipse of three suns (which happens every 22 years), is Riddick (Vin Diesel), a dangerous escape convict. Riddick may be their only hope though, with his surgically-enhanced silver eyes that allow him to see in the dark. I may not have payed all that much attention, but from what I did watch, there was some good action and special effects. The awful sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick followed in 2004. Very good!