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Are you afraid of the dark? If you are, don't worry, for this
film doesn't ever really get close to tapping this most basic
human fear as there are almost no scenes that live up to the
description in the title. Nonetheless, as sci-fi movies go,
this one is still reasonably original and fairly interesting
viewing.
It starts off with a hiss and roar as the space cruiser Hunter/Gratzner
runs into difficulties in deep space and ends up crash landing
rather spectacularly on a standard issue alien planet (you know
the one, all desert sand and rocks). To make things simple for
the audience, most of the passengers and crew die, leaving a
small but particularly bizarre group of survivors. There's acting
captain Fry (Radha Mitchell) who has to take over as the real
captain perished in the crash, police type Johns (Cole Hauser),
murderer Riddick (Vin Diesel) who is being transported Con Air
style by Johns to his next prison, psuedo-Islamic holy man Imam
(Keith David) and his family, plus a fiesty teenager, a wimpering
English antiquities dealer, and two non descript Australians.
What happens to this merry band is relatively simple. The planet
seems lifeless but it soon becomes apparent that there is a
hostile carnivore lurking in the shadows. Luckily, this desert
planet is blessed with three suns so there aren't that many
shadows to speak of. More likely killers seem to be hunger,
thirst, or skin cancer. But the cosmic ballet dances in strange
and beautiful ways and before long the crash survivors realise
that have chosen exactly the wrong time to arrive on this planet
as they witness a highly unlikely triple solar eclipse that
plunges them into total darkness.
Much of this movie plays as your run of the mill creature feature
with members of the cast being knocked off at conveniently regular
intervals. This is OK, but what I enjoyed about Pitch Black
was the interplay between the main characters Fry, Riddick,
and to a lesser extent Johns. Australian actress Radha Mitchell
(yet another Neighbours alumnus) is quite good as the deputy
struggling to fill the shoes of her deceased captain, never
sure of whether she has what it takes or not, and haunted by
a cowardly decision she made at the start of the film. Vin Diesel
(last seen as a high powered sharebroker in Boiler Room) as
all muscle and testosterone, but his character is more than
just your average criminal type on the road to redemption. I
would have rated this movie higher if it wasn't for the ending
which I guess was nicely unpredictable, but left me feeling
a little flat afterwards.
Not the greatest science fiction movie of all time, but director
David Twohy doesn't do too much wrong and at least makes some
attempts to create something that breaks the mold of this genre.
Interesting and original.
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