DIRECTED BY: David N. Twohy WRITTEN BY: Jim and Ken Wheat CAST: Radha Mitchell, Vin Diesel, Cole Hauser, Keith David (I)
MPAA: Rated R for sci-fi violence and gore, and for language Runtime: USA:112 (unrated version)
"Afraid of the dark?"
RATING: 6/10
Weirdly cool, coolly weird, beautifully stupid, Pitch Black opens with a bang. A slam, actually, as a damaged spaceship under the direction of a brisk pilot named Fry (Radha Mitchell - the Ripley of this story) makes a crash landing onto an unknown planet. On it is a killer (Vin Diesel), a bounty hunter, a stockbroker, a brat boy and a couple of Muslim pilgrims -- all on the same ship. And they were all going somewhere (where exactly the screenwriters do not know). The rest of the crew is killed; the passengers are all shook up and emerge ahead of schedule from their transport comas, blinking and bleeding in a seemingly lifeless planet with three suns, which seems completely abandoned. But once in 22 years darkness falls and strange creatures emerge from the ground. Now they all have to trust a killer who can see in the dark. What happens next you can guess.
The film is shaped in the image of Ridley Scott's "Alien", but has a couple of inventions of its own. These are of course not associated with story or character development, but instead concern the visual aspect. "The Arrivial"-director David Twohy creates a chillingly effective atmosphere with light, shade and color combinations, bringing to ''Pitch Black'' the disorienting thrill of a world turned upside down. The film works best at the very beginning, when every character and scene is a mystery, and we, along side with the characters, experience a creepy notion of paranoia -- a fear of the unknown and a sense of something (or someone) lurking beneath. But then Twohy decides to turn off the originality and everything becomes pitch black. It is sad that films like this are regarded as science fiction, where the special effects are the heart of the movie, around witch the rest is built. With a script being on the same intellectual level as "Lost in Space" , it's hard to make a decent movie. Even the story itself doesn't stand any criticism (and I am not talking about the lucky landing or the perfect timing either). The planet doesn't give any impression of being alien. Somehow resembling the planet Tatooine from George Lucas' "Star Wars", it has the perfect environment for human beings -- temperature, surface and air. Is this convenient or what? There are other disturbing problems. Since it's dark only once in 22 years wouldn't it be more likely that the creatures would fear darkness and not sunlight? And considering that the planet is completely dead on the surface, do these creatures eat at all? Or are they completely dependant on human visitors?
Considering these (and many more!) irrationalities, it's impossible to watch this film as a science fiction. However, this movie is an excellent choice for horror and action lovers. The acting is decent, the effects are cool, the action is well coordinated - what more do can you want from a popcorn-film? Vin Diesel ("Saving Private Ryan") is very spooky as the feared murderer, being some sort of Hannibal Lecter-meets-Rambo kind of guy, with his eyes glaring in the darkness like a hyena. Midchell is likewise very effective with a couple of strong scenes and emotional outbursts. The rampaging aliens, meanwhile, look something like flying hammerhead sharks and behave like a flock of vampire bats and they squawk ''reeee-reee-reee!'' as they pounce and devour. True, we haven't seen that before. But does it really matter? The concept is known and that's enough. And though I did enjoy some of what was presented in "Pitch Black", I have seen it all before.
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