Strong and Moving!

So much average

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The first must-see film of the year.

If you like super heroe action movies you must think about seen the Riddick triology. Well, don't! This one has the best plot and it' no good, but the special effects are the worst!!!

An alright film with a pretty decent atmosphere Pitch Black is a Vin Diesel vehicle and the start of the Riddick franchise. You can go and see to see where it all started and some scenes are pretty good but overall the film is a middling affair which should be getting the cult status in the future. David Twowy is in good form but could have done better.

A crippled spaceship lands on a planet with three suns that only experiences darkness once every 22 years, things come out in the dark, and the crew must fight for survival, or die - that pretty much sums up "Pitch Black". The concept of a planet bathed in (almost) continuous light was the premise of Asimov's classic short story "Nightfall", but rather than being our own worst enemy, the "Pitch Black" planet is home to fierce, flying nocturnal carnivores. As space adventures go, this one is pretty good. The look of the glaringly illuminated desert planet is very well done and the various backgrounds (the bone filled canyon and the hollow towers for example) look great. The acting is what one would expect for this kind of movie, lots of gruff tough-guy posturing, semi-comic relief from the less-heroic characters, and the usual alien-chow that only live long enough to establish the threat. Vin Diesel's 'Riddick' character was so popular that he front-lined a couple of less-than-stellar 'sequels', but I didn't find that he was any more interesting that the rest of the main cast. Of course, the raison d'etre for this kind of film are the aliens, which, although usually only seen briefly, in the shadows, or through Riddick's enhanced eyes, are excellent. The plot does hang on some coincidences such as the crash occurring just hours before one of the rare eclipses and the abandoned geology base having an orrery (a somewhat archaic tool for an interplanetary mission) that conveniently explains the whole three-sun eclipse scenario, but those are minor problems in an otherwise pretty good story.

A deep-space passenger ship is hit by meteorites that breach the hull, forcing pilot Fry (Radha Mitchell) to crash-land on a nearby planet capable of sustaining human life. Incredibly, Fry and a handful of her passengers survive the impact, including mercenary Johns (Cole Hauser) and his extremely dangerous prisoner Riddick (Vin Diesel).After investigating their new surroundings, the survivors come to the conclusion that they are on a dead world, all indigenous life having long been wiped out. In fact, there is one species still very much alive: flesh-eating, light-sensitive creatures that live below ground, away from the deadly glare of the planet's three suns. Unfortunately for Fry and company, they are about to be plunged into darkness by an eclipse that occurs once every 22 years, and which signals the emergence of the aliens from beneath the surface.The survivors only chance of making it off the planet alive involves transferring energy cells from their downed craft to a functioning ship discovered at a nearby deserted mining colony, a task that requires putting trust in Riddick, whose surgically enhanced eyes enable him to see in the dark.I'm willing to forgive the whole convenient 'breathable atmosphere' issue (as I do for one of of my favourite sci-fi films, Enemy Mine), but sci-fi horror Pitch Black throws up one unbelievable plot contrivance after another, completely ignoring logic in favour of thrills, thereby making it hard for me to rate it very highly despite some well handled action from director David Twohy, a memorable turn from gruff star Vin Diesel, and sexy Radha Mitchell in tight clothing.The silly plot simply leaves too many awkward questions: if the aliens have long eradicated all animal life on the surface, what the hell have they been eating ever since? How do creatures that burn up in daylight but which must come to the surface to feed evolve on a planet with three suns? Why do they even bother to come to the surface if they've already eaten everything? Just a few of the head scratchers that this poorly scripted flick fails to answer.