Pitch Black – 2000 – United States
Of all the movies inspired by Alien (1979), this is the only one starring Vin Diesel. Actually, that’s probably not even true. In any case, Pitch Black is a reasonably entertaining movie, but it isn’t a very remarkable one, and I’m a little surprised that Vin Diesel’s character Riddick went on to have a whole series of movies. He is a hardboiled criminal of ambiguous morality whose most defining feature is that he can see in the dark. Maybe I should watch another Riddick movie and see what all the fuss is about.
Pitch Black takes place on a planet with 3 suns that only experiences darkness during a solar eclipse every 22 years. During that rare nightfall, swarms of light-averse, pterodactyl-like monsters fly out of their caves and eat all life on the surface. A motley crew of travelers is space-wrecked and must survive the monster-filled darkness. There is some squabbling and backstabbing, and most of them get killed.
The characters in Pitch Black are sort of interesting. These include a Muslim holy man on a pilgrimage to New Mecca, a young boy who idolizes Riddick and impersonates him (later she is revealed to be a girl), a trader in Earth antiques and luxuries, and a drug-addicted bounty hunter. They are quirky but not especially well-developed. Nonetheless, I like that they represent a diverse cross-section of the sort of people that might be thrown together on a deep space transport ship.
Pitch Black is a wholly functional movie. There is plenty of action and conflict. The effects are decent, even if the monsters are a little boring. The grungy, industrial style of the sets and costumes is cool. The scenes are all tinted red or blue (representing the light of the 3 suns), which gives everything a strange, radical sort of look. I laughed at the part where the survivors of the wreck have no water, so they have to drink booze.
I’ve seen this movie twice, so it’s at least that good.
Rating: 6/10 Shrunken Heads. Children get killed!
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