"Pitch Black"

[link|http://us.imdb.com/Title?0134847|Pitch Black] at IMDB

I rented this movie this weekend and watched it twice (which is rare for me). I have no baseline for quality when it comes to SciFi movies, but I usually just rent them and say "yeah, that was bad, but not too bad a way to spend a few hours" and then turn them back in. This one, however, was good enough that I watched it twice (and would probably watch it again if I was renting it longer)

The movie was very good, I thought. It had a production style that I felt was close to "made for TV" but the acting, cinemetography and special effects were much better thant standard TV fair.

For you Farscape fans, Claudia Black (Aeryn Sun) has a minor role; well done, but not enough time on screen to fully develop her character as well as some of the others get developed. (Allthough when SciFi showed this a few months back, the trailers, previews, etc...made her out to be the star)

And the character development is good. Vin Diesel is "the bad guy who saves the day" but in a role where it could turn into 'lifelong bad guy suddenly becomes good', Vin's character, "Riddick" was a nasty SOB to the end. The real character development was in "Carolyn Fry" (played by Radha Mitchell), the pilot who was willing to let all the passengers die in the beginning who ends up risking her life to save as many as she can. Another interesting character is the third lead; "Johns" (played by Cole Hauser). He's the cop escorting Riddick back to prison. In that role, you would expect him to be the hero, but he turns out to be not nearly as noble as you would first think, or as heroic as he trys to convince the others. All three are three dimensional characters with more depth of personality acted much better than similar roles in similar movies.

Vin gets most of the good lines; the writers avoided the temptation to throw in silly lines delivered deadpan by the 'hero' as are present in so many action movies today

Like Claudia Black, the other actors do a good job, but don't have enough screen time for serious character exposition

The plot: Relatively straightforward SciFi/Horror fair. Disaster happens, crew/passengers marooned. Humans find out that they taste like chicken. Tension and bodycount mount as they attempt to escape from something slightly higher on the food chain. The particulars this time around are pretty good. First off, the accident happens on a ship in space, which ends up crashlanding on a planet. The crashlanding scene is simply stunning. *It's* worth seeing a few times on the biggest screen with the biggest speakers you can find. The planet itself is a desert planet with little water and three suns, so it's in constant daylight. The crash survivors find an old abandoned geological survey site with a working skiff they can use to escape. The also happen to find some nasty creatures underground that are very fast and very vicious but have an aversion to light. Shouldn't be a problem on a desert planet of perpetual sunlight. Until they discover that the planet is about to experience a total eclipse. Then the race is one to get the supplies needed to get the 'escape ship' ready to takeoff before the eclipse plunges the planet into 'pitch black' and the baddies come out to play. Note quite a spolier because it should be fairly obvious that they don't quite make it in time and the rest of the movie is them trying to get off the planet alive while in total darkness

Plot holes: A few too many coincidences that require suspension of disbelief. They just *happen* to crash very close to the old abandonded site at a time that just happens to be not far from an eclipse that happens once every 22 years and one of the survivors just happens to have a unique ability that makes survival more possible. Get past these and it's a good movie.

Special Effects: Awesome. Mostly centered around the opening crash seqeuence. The CG monsters are well done, too.

Cinemography: Stunning. Most of the movie was filmed with some overexposure effect or the film was bleached out to give a good impression of a desert planet beaten by three suns. The night scenes are also well done, providing darkness that your eyes try to peer through and just occasional glimpses of something out there you can hear but really don't want to see

There is no T/A and much of the violence happens off-camera, although there are a few bloody on-camera shots

All in all, a good way to spend a few bucks at Blockbuster and 87 minutes with the lights off in the house

Post #4,076 by Fearless Freep 8/7/01 2:56:43 PM Reply	"Pitch Black" [link\|http://us.imdb.com/Title?0134847\|Pitch Black] at IMDB I rented this movie this weekend and watched it twice (which is rare for me). I have no baseline for quality when it comes to SciFi movies, but I usually just rent them and say "yeah, that was bad, but not too bad a way to spend a few hours" and then turn them back in. This one, however, was good enough that I watched it twice (and would probably watch it again if I was renting it longer) The movie was very good, I thought. It had a production style that I felt was close to "made for TV" but the acting, cinemetography and special effects were much better thant standard TV fair. For you Farscape fans, Claudia Black (Aeryn Sun) has a minor role; well done, but not enough time on screen to fully develop her character as well as some of the others get developed. (Allthough when SciFi showed this a few months back, the trailers, previews, etc...made her out to be the star) And the character development is good. Vin Diesel is "the bad guy who saves the day" but in a role where it could turn into 'lifelong bad guy suddenly becomes good', Vin's character, "Riddick" was a nasty SOB to the end. The real character development was in "Carolyn Fry" (played by Radha Mitchell), the pilot who was willing to let all the passengers die in the beginning who ends up risking her life to save as many as she can. Another interesting character is the third lead; "Johns" (played by Cole Hauser). He's the cop escorting Riddick back to prison. In that role, you would expect him to be the hero, but he turns out to be not nearly as noble as you would first think, or as heroic as he trys to convince the others. All three are three dimensional characters with more depth of personality acted much better than similar roles in similar movies. Vin gets most of the good lines; the writers avoided the temptation to throw in silly lines delivered deadpan by the 'hero' as are present in so many action movies today Like Claudia Black, the other actors do a good job, but don't have enough screen time for serious character exposition The plot: Relatively straightforward SciFi/Horror fair. Disaster happens, crew/passengers marooned. Humans find out that they taste like chicken. Tension and bodycount mount as they attempt to escape from something slightly higher on the food chain. The particulars this time around are pretty good. First off, the accident happens on a ship in space, which ends up crashlanding on a planet. The crashlanding scene is simply stunning. It's worth seeing a few times on the biggest screen with the biggest speakers you can find. The planet itself is a desert planet with little water and three suns, so it's in constant daylight. The crash survivors find an old abandoned geological survey site with a working skiff they can use to escape. The also happen to find some nasty creatures underground that are very fast and very vicious but have an aversion to light. Shouldn't be a problem on a desert planet of perpetual sunlight. Until they discover that the planet is about to experience a total eclipse. Then the race is one to get the supplies needed to get the 'escape ship' ready to takeoff before the eclipse plunges the planet into 'pitch black' and the baddies come out to play. Note quite a spolier because it should be fairly obvious that they don't quite make it in time and the rest of the movie is them trying to get off the planet alive while in total darkness Plot holes: A few too many coincidences that require suspension of disbelief. They just happen to crash very close to the old abandonded site at a time that just happens to be not far from an eclipse that happens once every 22 years and one of the survivors just happens to have a unique ability that makes survival more possible. Get past these and it's a good movie. Special Effects: Awesome. Mostly centered around the opening crash seqeuence. The CG monsters are well done, too. Cinemography: Stunning. Most of the movie was filmed with some overexposure effect or the film was bleached out to give a good impression of a desert planet beaten by three suns. The night scenes are also well done, providing darkness that your eyes try to peer through and just occasional glimpses of something out there you can hear but really don't want to see There is no T/A and much of the violence happens off-camera, although there are a few bloody on-camera shots All in all, a good way to spend a few bucks at Blockbuster and 87 minutes with the lights off in the house Jay O'Connor "Going places unmapped to do things unplanned to people unsuspecting"
Post #4,082 by tseliot 8/7/01 4:14:17 PM Reply	Director's cut (DVD) has some extra scenes: where the hero is shown more strung-out on whatever dope he has. Can't remember if it's adrenalin or heroin or something else... Good review! That's her, officer! That's the woman that programmed me for evil!
Post #4,090 by Fearless Freep 8/7/01 4:57:07 PM Reply	Was Morphine... which is the point Riddick made to Fry that got Fry so upset. The morhpine could've killed the pain for the dying navigator. This was an important plot development as it showed Johns out to be much more of a selfish scum then we first thought and starts Fry's distrust of Johns. This set up some important character conflicts later on. I'm curious if the extra scenes added to the development or not. I read one IMDB review where the reviewer that there was no point to John's addiction...obviously someone not paying attention :) Good review! Thanks! Jay O'Connor "Going places unmapped to do things unplanned to people unsuspecting"
Post #4,336 by Meerkat 8/9/01 8:01:29 AM Reply	A Good Film For all sorts of reasons... Not outstanding stunning or whatever, but jolly good, with just enough tension to keep it interesting. And yeah, the odd predictable but, ya get that. Not as scary as Event Horizon. I'll agree, the opening crash scene bit is fab - was very good to see at the movies. And who'd ever guess Radha Mitchell is Australian? On and on and on and on, and on and on and on goes John.

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