Pitch Black

After their ship crashes onto an unforgiving and hostile planet, only a disparate group of eleven folk survive under the command of “Fry” (Radha Mitchell). Trying to galvanise her cohort of ten isn’t going to be easy as these are no ordinary crew. Moreover, with pitch darkness descending over the place - quite an achievement as it has three suns - every twenty-odd hours, and with the indigenous plant life proving to have quite a penchant for human flesh, things look bleak. It might be that their only hope of survival rests with the see-in-the-dark enabled convict “Riddick” (Vin Diesel) but can she trust him to lead them to a shuttle that could get them off this arid world? Can she trust anyone? There are plenty of solid visual effects on display here, but the story has a certain familiar, hybrid, ring to it that anyone who has ever watched “Dr. Who” over the years will recognise. Diesel is an imposing and charismatic actor and he very much owns this, but the rest of the cast - including the dreadful Claudia Black whom I blame, entirely, for ruining “Stargate SG-1” in the end, picking up the slack and hopefully ending up triffid fodder. It is a well paced adventure with plenty going on pretty much from the start, and the dingy wind-swept scenarios create quite a claustrophobic atmosphere for this sinister adventure to thrive.

'Pitch Black' is passable viewing. As a big 'Fast & Furious' fan, it was about time I checked out more of Vin Diesel's other work. I had heard of this character of his before, though didn't know a jot about the plot. It turns out it's fairly good, despite minor issues. It has a noticeable low budget/low quality feel to it, the special effects haven't aged beautifully and the acting level is rather mid. Nevertheless, I still did enjoy the creatures and those onscreen do the job. It does attempt quite a bit of sci-fi, so I can respect it. Diesel is effective in the role of Riddick, a character I can certainly see the potential for here. Kinda funny that he co-stars with Cole Hauser, who appears in '2 Fast 2 Furious' - the only F&F flick to not feature Vin. Hauser is solid enough, he does suit this sorta role. Radha Mitchell and Keith David are the best of the others. I'm intrigued to see where they went with 'The Chronicles of Riddick' (of course, the film Diesel chose over 2 Fast). I hadn't heard of this one before, though do know of the follow-up... so it must be good, right?

The movie that put Vin Diesel on the map as Riddick, the crooked anti-hero wanted by bounty hunters. This is another movie that benefits from knowing very little before watching the film.