Pitch Black


release year: 2000
genre: sci-fi/horror
viewing setting: home DVD, 7/1/12 and theater 1/20/2000

synopsis: Spaceship crashes on planet with 3 suns and dangerous flying monsters that onyl come out when it's dark - and then a long and total eclipse arrives.

impressions: This was a decent enough movie, but it had a basic and often-repeated problem: once you establish a fact or "rule" in a movie, you need to stick to it. Case in point: the monsters only come out at night, the monsters are fast and bold and savage, and the monsters outnumber the humans by a factor of thousands. Why, then, did they pass up so many chances to kill the humans when there was little or no light present? It didn't make any damn sense at times. Other gripes: shoddy/fast-cut camera work early in the movie, characters doing stupid things while time is running out and/or monsters are about. I did like the variety of characters and the way they had to work together, and the monsters were suitably creepy and alien. Upon a second viewing over a decade later, I've come to realize that this movie was really more about the main character, Riddick, than anything else.

something this movie has that no other movie has: A guy whose eyes have been surgically altered to allow him to see in the dark.

acting: All were decent to good, but Vin Diesel stood out as an antihero who, despite being a murderer and criminal, is actually less evil and more useful than the "good" guys.

final word: Worth seeing, but somewhat overrated in my opinion.

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