Very original, great story effects and acting

Rating: 8/10 (4 August 2009)

First I have to say I never give ANY movies a 10 out of 10. Unfortunately, since so many people have trashed this movie just because they didn't understand what they were watching, or claim it's a ripoff of other movies, it has a lower rating than it should have.
I would give this movie an 8 out of 10.
Overall, excellent acting, effects, story and script.
The crew and passengers of a space ship crash land on a planet with three suns. One of the survivors is a chained criminal who manages to escape shortly after the crash.
The survivors find an old research camp a short distance away from their crash site (unlikely on such a large planet). Here they find a machine to reclaim water from the atmosphere, a small shuttle-like spacecraft and all the belongings of the people who inhabited the camp.
By now, the criminal has agreed to rejoin the rest of the group in exchange for a promise of freedom. This criminal (Riddick) makes everyone else realize that the original occupants of the camp never left, but were killed by some animals that earlier killed another of their party.
Their task is to bring back some energy capsules from their crash site to power the spacecraft at the camp.
Throughout the story they discover that the planet goes through an extended period of darkness due to an eclipse every 27 years (unlikely they would crash during this time), and soon discover that sightless animals come out to eat anything they can find including each other during this eclipse. Our group has to retrieve the energy capsules while avoiding getting eaten, with Riddick leading the group.
Many people claim this movie is a ripoff of the Alien series, or even Jurassic Park. This is utter nonsense. There are hundreds (if not thousands) or monster movies out there, and if this movie is a rip off then every monster movie ever made is a ripoff of whatever the original monster movie was.
What do monsters do? They chase you, they rip you apart, they eat you. So, in so far as the monsters in this movie do those same things (as every good monster should) then it is a monster movie ripoff as much as Star Wars is a ripoff of Star Trek.
The monsters (I prefer animals) in this movie fly, they have no eyes but "see" using a type of echo location like a bat does. One person asked how Riddick could stare down one of these animals without getting eaten. This person should have paid more attention as the movie clearly shows Riddick examining a skull of one of these animals and finding a "blind spot" where the animal could not "see" what is in that spot.
Of course, this movie has a couple of unlikely things like most scifi movies do. One is that the planet has a breathable atmosphere, one is that the gang should crash so close to the research camp on such a huge planet, and of course they happen to crash just before the eclipse takes place.
Come on people. If the story was, ship crashes, people die because of a poison atmosphere there wouldn't be much of a story, would there? Same goes for people crash, people wonder around and die of thirst. And, of course, people crash, people find camp with water, people fix small spacecraft and leave. None of those plots would make much of a movie.
The way the people are portrayed is perfect for the situation they are in. The animals are quite unique and not intelligent as the aliens are in Alien and Predator. It's a fast paced intense action movie that will give enjoyment to anyone who sees it.
If you are a scifi fan and have not seen this movie, you are in for a treat. If you're not a scifi fan, go watch something else.