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Pitch Black (Rated Version)

Pitch Black (Rated Version)

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Woo hoo...Vin Diesel
Review: I just had to get that out of my system. This man is just too cute.

That said, I have to tell you that "Pitch Black" is a welcome surprise. In a sea of mindless rehashes of classic SF vehicles, it's got some heft. And all gushing about Diesel aside, I have to say that he's a big part of why this film works. He and Radha Mitchell carry a good deal of the film's weight with something more than just simple competence.

The story itself is one we've seen dozens of times: a group of mismatched and often difficult characters are thrown together in a hostile environment, and try to keep themselves and each other alive. Instead of a single alien/predator/monster, PB gives us flocks of them, all pretty scary. And instead of a quirky-but-basically-good lead, we have Riddick who is something of a monster himself.

There are plot holes in this film big enough to pilot a drop ship through, but ignore that and concentrate on the plot twists, the fairly deft characterization and the look of the thing. It has style, and it's a lot of fun if you'll just let it play out. Absolutely worth your time if you're a fan of the genre. And if you're not, if you just want a little eye candy, Diesel and Mitchell are both excellent choices.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Exactly how it should be watched!
Review: I ADORE scary movies (not hack-em ups) and Pitch Black is one of the best I've seen in a long time. It takes advantage of most everyone's innate fear of the dark and things that go bump in the night. To get the best effect, watch with the lights off! It was a long time coming!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Pitch Black Review
Review: Hit by a meteor shower, a transport ship carrying a violent criminal (Vin Diesel) crash lands on a barren desert planet. Survivors find remains of a colonized camp, but what happened to the survivors? When an eclipse turns the three sunned world to darkness, carnivorous beasts attack at night. This was as good a movie as the trailer promised it to be. Vin Diesel gives a powerful performance as the unlikable anti-hero who saves the others, though you're never really certain if he wants to save them or he just needs them to survive. Claudia Black "Farscape" is also in this one. Not as dark and morbid as the Alien movies, but good and scary with an uncertain survivalistic edge. It lends itself well to a sequel if done properly.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK-BE AFRAID OF WHAT'S IN THE DARK!
Review: PITCH BLACK is an incredible movie. Lots of suspense. Richard B. Riddick is very intriguing to figure out. Very intense characters. The added footage on the unrated version really explains and adds a lot to some of the scenes of the movie that you see in the rated version. As David Twohy says, "Sometimes the less you see is scarier." Not knowing what's out there makes it a lot more bone chilling. I highly recommend seeing this movie to everyone. Especially fans of Vin Diesel(like me)! Would I be afraid of the dark?----not if I was with Riddick(in which case, he might need to be afraid of the dark!!!) Keep up the great work, Vin! Can't wait for the sequel!!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: 5 star for sci-fi junkies
Review: 5 stars what more can I say? This movie happens to have my fav sci-fi plot.Land on a planet,find something strange ,try to figure it out and live through it.These kind of stories never get old to me.I started out reading them in the sixties in paperback before sci-fi was "in" and now they're making movies of them!What more could a fan ask?My rating on this one is purely subjective,but if you like pure action sci-fi this one will grab you.Vin Deisel is a natural.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fun
Review: Ok, this was one of those movies that made you want to know more. At least for me. It was fun and not
bad to look at. It was a simple plot and that never tried to rise above it's self.

It knew it was Entertainment and not a social commentary.
So don't go into it expecting art. Watch it with a good time in mind and you won't be disappointed.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Here is a film that wastes its chance.
Review: PITCH BLACK could've been the ultimate in the sci-fi thriller genre, but it failed to keep up each end it kept on trying to build on. David N. Tworthy, writer of THE FUGITIVE writes and directs this film based on survivors from a crash landing on a strange planets where manhunting aliens stalk at night. This film isn't lit with a descent cast or very great set design, but the concept of the film was meant to literally scare you out of your seat- but it failed to risk it. Pitch Black stays on this balance, probably because of budget, where the acting and special effects don't qualify for what they are trying get across to the audience. The aliens look like blobs with points sticking out of them. There isn't anything real chilling because the film is never dark enough to be "pitch black" and there is never a time in the film where you don't know what is going to happen. The characters come up with some creativity with lighting to stay alive, but the writer constantly keeps you in a forward slow-motion, and there is no tension that grasps you and pulls you into this world of monsters.

Awe-struck, this film is built mostly on its originality of plot working, something most monster films don't contain. The main idea is excellent, but the way it is played out doesn't go with the flow. It is hammered down into the way Hollywood wants to throw it together, and not the way the audience wants to see it portrayed.

Vin Diesel makes no worthy performance, except for his memorable vision which guides the other survivors through the trail of terror in the film. He plays the villian/hero role, who seems more like a Terminator than a man. This film is broadened with unrealistic looking weaponry, strange sets and dramatic events that seem to veer off from a realistic look, and the special effects and alien creatures look like something that could be plumped into a $20 million production. The film needs more meat on its bones to get the audience more excited, and bring more fear to the screen.

The plot is the only thing that holds up to the hype- which really is the most important thing, but when nothing else works... the film is slammed down under a dirty production that needs to go through the motion picture washing machine a few times before its ready for the audiences' attention. The possibility of a sequel being made holds up the question of whether or not the production team can fix up the mistakes a second time around.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A good B Movie
Review: This movie is pretty good, but the hard thing for me is that just about the whole movie is very dark. If you like horror combined with Sci-fi, then you probably will like it.

A group of people are stranded on a planet. the only way off is to hike accrost this barrin wastland to get to another space camp. unfortunitly, this planet is loaded with flesh eating creatures. The slightest light will keep them away, but stray out of the light, and you are instant dinner for these huge powerfull creatures.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Twists I didn't expect, I like it
Review: Saw this film originally on a University movie channel, I turned it on expecting just another sci-fi monster movie. I was actually very surprised. While it has the prerequisite dazzling special effects (believe me, I like these too), it had something I haven't seen in a good long while. The characters actually act... human? They don't "kill all the big bad monsters" like unlikely super heroes, they run away (honestly what I, and I would hazard the guess, most anyone would do).

Furthermore, I liked the character development which is RARE in any action/horror film now days. Riddick's (Diesel) development has been noted to be a bit overdone at the last, and I'll admit the final scene might just be a tad sappy, but I'm not complaining. Fry's (Mitchell) development should not be overlooked, however, and she really impressed me at the end by being the hero, without losing the "real person" image.

Scary for anyone who was afraid of the dark as a kid, and with enough twists to make the plot deep enough to be interesting even while the credits roll and you finish off the popcorn. Enjoy!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Without Vin Diesel no Pitch Black
Review: When I sat down in the theater watching Pitch Black for the first time I just went numb the first five minutes. I can't explain it, it was one of the best openings I've seen. A spaceship travelling towards an unknown destination with a caged serial killing animal onboard (ferociusly played by Vin Diesel, in the first role I've seen him in since Saving Private Ryan) narrating the first few minutes with a dialogue so taut that I just had to shrug. And the music by Graeme Revell together with Diesels deep almost spellbinding voice. The ship goes down in a psychedelic fury of images and colours, and crashlands on a remote desert planet. Once down the pilots get together with the other survivors which include an Imam and his three sons (said to be going to New Mecca, it can't get any better folks), a marshall (that is actually a bountyhunter taking Diesels character Riddick back to jail after he escaped for the last time) and a bounch of australian and english people. They soon find out that the planet got three suns, that Riddick is on the loose and that something unseen is killing people in the dark. Up to this point the movie is just great, the pictures and characters, especially Radha Michell as the pilot Fry and Cole Hauser as bountyhunter Jonhs (succeding where his father Wings didn't). But this is Vin Diesels show, just seeing him running in something that can only be compared to a Nike or Reebok commercial showing of his well trained body makes for a movie above the usual action/sci-fi/adventure genre. And hearing him talk, delivering lines that would put Hannibal Lecter to shame makes for something just unbelievable. Up to a point it can't get any better and it just fails. These three suns go into an eclipse every twentytwo years and when that happens the creatures from within come out to feed. Our surviving friends just happened to come at the right time for the big feast. Pale creatures with no eyes flying out over the planets surface communicating through something that sounds like dolphin singing. Oh, and just one more thing, Riddick can see at night and he actually turns out to be a not so bad guy. And my faith in this movie went down just after Riddick seeing the creatures approaching, saying: "Beautiful"
Towards the end not even Diesel can keep it up.
And when it's over I feel that it could have been so much better but because of Vin Diesel giving me faith that he is in fact the next big thing I give it a three star rating.


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