Doesn't eclipse 'Alien'

Rating: 7/10 (2 October 2005)

There have been few films as influential as 'Alien' and the first thing to say about 'Pitch Black' is how closely it follows the template laid down by that groundbreaking film. An ensemble cast of characters, landed in circumstances unknown by presumed hostile, try to keep their cool in the face of a growing but undefined sense of unease, but in the finale have to fight to the death with aliens (and traitors among themselves); not all will survive. Add to that a grungy, poorly lit aesthetic and you might consider the film almost a carbon copy. But if you're going to copy a film, then copying one known for it's atmosphere of claustrophobic tension is not such a bad idea, and there's a lot of original detail in 'Pitch Black' as well, some of it good, other bits less so. For example, the central idea is of a spaceship crashing on planet bathed in near-permanent light, thanks to three suns; but on which, like a desert in the rain, all sorts of things come alive when (every twenty years or so) there's a solar eclipse. The three suns also provide three alternative colours of light (before the darkness strikes, of course), which allows director David Twohy three visions for the price of one; but he doesn't seem quite to know what to do with this gift, and while the colour of the world changes from yellow to blue to red, it's unclear what this adds to the film except for a superficial jumpiness. As for the indoor scenes, shot unfailing in half-light only, the use of semi-darkness as a cheap way of creating an air of menace has surely not been this overdone since David Fincher's 'Se7en'.
As for the characterisation, the dynamics of a group whose members have their own selfish agendas are well portrayed, but the film lets itself down by making clear its sympathies for two crew members over the others, especially as the two characters it favours are essentially the least believable: vin Diesel's super-criminal Riddick, and the unlikely babelicious ship's commander, played by Radha Mitchell. While the moral darkness of the plot's conclusion is offset by the willingness to grant vin Diesel corny, Schwarzenegger-style lines, usually involving at least one word starting with the letter 'f'. Another flaw is Twohy's exaggerated preference for constant cross-cutting between scenes, which sometimes increases the tension, but sometimes makes the film appear more like a pop video than a movie. He undoubtedly succeeds in capturing an interesting look, but only at the price of also acquiring a certain corollary shallowness.
In conclusion, this certainly is not a wholly original film. But it looks good, and is plenty scary. Moreover, the whole somehow feels a little more distinctive than the individual parts. Still, one can't help but feel, this movie is just 'Alien' with better special effects, less judiciously used.