Pitch Perfect entertainment...

Rating: 10/10 (29 March 2017)

David Twohy is one of my favourite directors/writers today. He makes only movies he wrote himself, and they are always unique in some way. He often takes scientific ideas and uses them to make movies which are in a special genre and does something different with it.
And Pitch Black is one of the many times where this premise worked perfectly. It's a sci-fi-horror film about a ragtag group of survivors who crashed on a desert planet and have to survive.
SOunds simple? Well it is, and that's a strong point of the film, because the premise is simple and doesn't seem that original at first, but the mystery aspect of this film is what makes it great. Nearly every character has something to hide, and so does the planet which isn't as lifeless as one might think...
The actors are all very good, most of all Radha Mitchell and Vin Diesel. Mitchells character feels guilty the whole way through, because she wanted to drop all of the passengers to get a better chance to land the ship, but it didn't worked and now everyone greets her for saving them, and want her to be the new leader. And Diesels character is by far the most interesting Anti-Hero since Snake Plissken (who Diesel said he used as a inspiration. You can't take your eyes off the screen when he's there.
But one of the things you have to talk about in a David Twohy movie is the unique style. The movie is edited like all of his movies in a kind of "push it to the Limit!" mentality, which is never too distracting, but underlines the intensity of the scenes effectively. Also the cinematography and colors are amazing. The day scenes with the three suns look like you would dry out, and breakdown instantly because of the heat, and the night scenes are fantastically realized (which is very hard to do) and the movie really earns it's title.
Also very great: The movie is mostly centered around the characters and how they will get out of the situation, or even if they won't kill each other beforehand, and not so much focused on action, or horror. There are also no jump scares in the film or any other horror-bull crap, it's fairly suspenseful and character driven.
That the movie was a fairly low budget doesn't hurt it in any way, the creative way the film is directed by Twohy, prevents it from looking cheap, and the visual effects are just used then needed and aged incredibly well, most of all, of the way they use them.
All in all, one of the most intense, dark and unique Sci-Fi-Horror movies you'll see...