All you people are so scared of me. Most days I'd take that as a compliment. But it ain't me you gotta worry about now.

Pitch Black is directed by David Twohy and collectively written by Twohy and Ken and Jim Wheat. It stars Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Keith David, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Claudia Black and Rhiana Griffith. Music is by Graeme Revell and cinematography is by David Eggby.

The year 2000 was awash with sci-fi movies, not all were stellar of course, but siting at the top end of the scale was this, Twohy's super slice of action/horror/sci-fi cake.

Right from the off we are thrust on board the cargo ship Hunter-Gratzner, which as it happens is plummeting through space. The ship has been hit by meteorite debris and junior officer Caroline Fly (Mitchell), after coming out of hyper sleep, manages to crash land on a nearby planet. Only a handful of passengers survive the crash, including infamous convict Richard B. Riddick (Diesel), but as the survivors struggle to cope with the threat from within the group, it becomes apparent that there's a bigger threat soon to join the party, a deadly alien species, a species that can only operate in the dark. Pity, then, that an eclipse is due...

Okies, so lets get the obvious out in the open right away, Pitch Black is a variant of Alien, one of a ream of films that grabbed the coat tails of Ridley Scott's game changer. Yet this is still a fresh movie, a lesson in low budget film making with grace, style, blood, brains and balls - the execution grade "A" from those involved.

It's maybe surprising given the synopsis, to find that it's a very character driven piece, with Twohy continually building his characters even as the carnage and terror is unleashed - and these are a very diverse bunch of characters. One of the universe's baddest criminals, a spunky lady officer having to take command, a morphine addicted bounty hunter, an Islamic priest and his young companions, a camp alcoholic and a couple of strays. It's the not so wild bunch, but everyone of them are afforded chance to impact on the story before and during the inevitable picking off one by one at the claws of the beasts.

The narrative strength comes via Diesel's hulking convict, he's double jointed and has had optical surgery so he can see his enemies in the dark! The group must come to rely on him for he is clearly their best hope of survival, but can he be trusted? What is his ultimate ulterior motive? Riddick is the épée to Fry's foil, it's at times like a devil and angel trying to become one in the simple name of survival. These crux characters lift the simple premise to greater heights, that Mitchell (sexy/vulnerable/hard/smart) and Diesel (moody/beefy/gravelly/menacing) are bang on form helps no end. As does the work of the tech department.

The setting created here is a splendid veer from one of the curses of sci-fi films, that of an unbelievable world. Twohy, Eggby and the art department achieve a world of 3 suns, of a scorched barren landscape, with the photography switching between bleached and metallic filters for maximum sci-fi impact. While the effects work belies the budget, check out the pre-eclipse sequence. What of the creatures themselves? They are legion, a sort of pterodactyl nightmare who let out high pitched bleats, they smell blood and move at high speeds, and like Riddick they have special vision in the dark, it's the light that they are afraid of, thus this gives our survivors a glimmer (ahem) of hope in how to stave them off...

The science and logic is hokey, but so what? This is a classy and taut sci-fi film brought about by a very under valued director, one that puts many a bigger budgeted Hollywood production to shame. Come the finale, where there's still time to have your draw dropped, you may be minus nails and on the edge of your seat. 9/10

This movie is sort of cheap. The cinematography is not that good, also. The visual effects are bad. I really expected way more since it's a Vin Diesel movie but everything turned up to be a waste of time for me.
The storyline of the movie is really great and I was so excited to watch it that I did.
If you like a movie with a slow development and a story based on scientifical fiction about other planets on the universe, I strongly recommend it. Although, if you don't like that much and even want to give it a try, don't.
In the beginning of the movie, when I heard the first monologue, I found myself so excited about watching the film but then everything cracked upon.

You can try it on and see for yourself but I don't recommend it. It's kind of a week spot, to be honest. There are so many good movies, even about this subject, that there's no point to waste time watching a bad movie like this. Of course, I take in consideration the fact that it was a 2000's movie but still, there were many more before who did way better than this one did.

Have fun and good day.

One of those few movies that most people don't care for, but I personally think is **criminally** underrated.

_Final rating:★★★★½ - Ridiculously strong appeal. I can’t stop thinking about it._

Shipwrecked on a desert planet, the survivors of a doomed commercial spacecraft explore the sharp sand dunes and bleached alien skeletons of a foreign landscape, seeking water and, with luck, the means to escape or send an intergalactic SOS. They aren't many in number, and even that sum soon begins to dwindle as untimely seasons shift and the sky falls into a months-long eclipse, instantly unleashing flocks of wild, hungry native night-hunters from their subterranean lairs.

Fortunately, one of the survivors is well-equipped for precisely this situation. Riddick, a violent prisoner headed for the high-security slammer, boasts extensive combat experience and a set of augmented eyes that work best in the dark. Vin Diesel is effortlessly cool in that part, one which clearly evolved during the writing process to grow from a simple, gimmicky tough guy stereotype into a well-rounded, wonderfully unpredictable instigator who throws the plot over one shoulder and almost single-handedly hikes it down the home stretch. We don't always like him, but we're constantly intrigued by him, and Diesel (in his breakthrough role) really makes the most of that duality. He's not just grunting and grinding; he's assessing and scheming, too, with the physical performance just as essential as the strong, fluid character writing.

The rest of the show is a little more mixed. It's an obviously over-performing low-budget science fiction / horror film, so some slips can be expected. Much of the egregious stuff is masked with low-grade film techniques or by abusing quick jump cuts and extreme close-ups. What serious special effects there are vary from shockingly effective (Riddick's tense, quiet staredown with one of the monsters) to downright bad (all exterior shots of the ship). It's efficient, though, visually ambitious and thematically novel. Those virtues, plus one star-grade acting performance, add up to a bit better than average in my book.

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.