Review of Pitch Black (2000) by Javier G — 25 Jun 2012

About Monsters...

Pitch Black wasn't about the alien monsters (unofficially known as "grues"), it was about the monsters walking on two legs. Set against a backdrop of paranoia and primal fear of the dark and of it's denizens, the film really shines in covering the different types of creatures people can be.

Normallly I don't like watching any movies where people are in imminent danger of dying whether from natural disasters, alien monsters or crazed lunatics because more often than not I believe the hapless characters SHOULD die for the blunders that get them killed. All this made me wonder what on earth possesed me to watch this in the first place when it first came out and I remembered that it was a recommendation from a friend on the merits of the characters in the movie, specifically Riddick. This of course got me curious and the rest as they say is history.

Seriously, David Thowy and Co. probably weren't setting out to make a stirring character study and in-depth analysis of the levels of monstrosity that exist in regular human beings but to me this is what makes Pitch Black, as opposed to Chronicles of Riddick, such an excellent movie. The characters were all, as far as we knew, nothing more than human. What some of them did and/or wanted to do however, made the movie interesting. Essentially, everyone here was fighting for survival. It was great to see how far down their moral scale, if they had a moral scale at all, they were willing to go to do so.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this. Maybe they planned it. Maybe it was all accidental. Whatever the reason, the characters, Richard B. Riddick in particular, were what made this movie the little gem it was when it shouldn't have been more than B-grade schlock. Unfortunately they decided to take the franchise (once they figured out they could build a franchise on Riddick's back) towards E.T. sci-fi and away from human interactions since that was the most interesting part of it to me.

All in all, an interesting enough film about danger from monsters in an alien planet. The question becomes...which are the more dangerous monsters?

Entertainment Value - 1 and 1/2 Stars: I actually really enjoyed watching this movie. It was worth the time.

Storytelling - 1/2 Star: The story was a very thin sci-fi horror staple but, once you suspended the requisite parts of belief for the genre, the sequence of events, while outlandish and extremely unlucky, was plausible.

Characters and Dialogue - 1 Star: This made the movie. Every character was true to itself and the more memorable aspects of Riddick and his dialogue were what made this movie the success it became.

Production - 1/2 Star: It had it's own feel to it. Production in Coober Pedy was a great call for a barren, desert alien planet. Lighting during the inital part of the movie was excellent as well. All in all my mind accepted early that this world they presented was what they said it was and nothing stuck out to take me out of that illusion so good job.

Direction and Editing - 1 Star: It was paced just right and at no time did I feel I was confused by the cuts or the progression of scenes in the final cut.