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Pitch Black (Widescreen Unrated Director's Cut) Customer Reviews (64 - 66 of 69 Reviews)

Exciting, tense, thrilling, scary, and suspenseful.
All those words above describe Pitch Black, last year's biggest surprise. It's a film that moves at a lightning pace and boasts a great setting and great special effects. This is the sort of film that will be featured on the sci-fi channel constantly and will gain the recognition it deserves as a new sci-fi/horror classic.

The storyline is nothing original but will defintely pique any sci-fi fan's interest. It begins with the shot of a large spacecraft slowly moving through outer space. It's quiet, but foreboding and ominous. All of a sudden, micrometeroids puncture the ship's hull, killing the captain immediately and sending the entire craft crashing onto a seemingly desolate planet.

There are only 11 survivors, which include Carolyn Fry (Radha Mitchell), the pilot; Richard Riddick (Vin Diesel), a convicted murderer; Johns, the cop who has captured him; and a group of Muslims, a antiquities dealer, a child, and two free settlers. The system they're in has 3 suns, thus night never comes. That is, until they discover that there will be an eclipse and these voractious beasts who are phobic of light will come out of hiding to feed.

First, huge credit must go to the two lead performances from the sexy and beautiful Radha Mitchell and Vin Diesel. Though Diesel probably has the more commanding presence, this is Mitchell's film. She's the most likeable and we empathize with her the most. I have never actually seen in her another film before and looking up her credits list, she's been in maybe just a bit over half-a-dozen films, and that's a surprise considering the amount of talent she has. Diesel is equally great, creating a compelling anti-hero, one who is also surprisingly likeable and easy to sympathize. I am quite certain these two will be familiar faces and names in the near future. The rest of the cast is also fine, with solid support from Cole Hauser, Keith David, and Lewis Fitzgerald.

The action sets in during the second half, when it all turns dark. That is when Pitch Black is at its most thrilling. Each alien encounter is tense and director David Twohy proves himself proficient at handling action scenes. He also knows that it's scarier when you can't see what is attacking you, thus for a good bit of the film we hear the creatures rather than outright seeing them.

The creature effects are very good, and the design is actually a very inspired one. Let's just say the creatures resemble the ones from the Alien series, along with a hammerhead shark, a bat, and a lizard all rolled up in one to make a terrifying beastie.

If you're the least bit intrigued by the story, then this is more than worth the rental. I would watch the unrated version, which only adds 3 minutes, but it's 3 extra minutes of good character develoment.

If Riddick Ruled The Planet...
PITCH BLACK is a very well thought out thriller, that on premise alone sounds a lot like ALIEN, but upon execution, is not. When a spaceship crashes on a remote planet, the survivors must face their darkest fears, to stay alive. Their power supply is at a minimum. When the planet loses the warmth of daylight, horrible creatures attack, and their only weakness is the light. The ranking crewmember, Carolyn Fry, (Radha Mitchell) must turn to a psychopathic killer passenger for help to defeat the creatures of the dark. Actor Vin Diesel is the man known as Riddick., who is evil, put in charge of the group's very lives. Diesel's first star turn after SAVING PRIVATE RYAN suits him. His deep voice, shaved head, and imposing manner make his Riddick, one of the best anti-heroes in recent memory. Co-written and directed by David Twohy, the film is creepy, and its effects are well done. The unrated version of the film, inserts about 3 minutes of footage into the movie, not seen theatrically. The new stuff does very little to enhance the plot (more gore). Anyone who is a fan of sci-fi/horror will like this film.

The DVD has a by the numbers "making of" featurette. There is an excellent commentary track with Twohy, Diesel, actor Cole Hauser, producer Tom Engelman, and VFX supervisor Peter Chiang. It also includes a rather freaky Raveworld event deadicated to the film and its theatrical trailer. Personally, I would recommend the unrated film over its rated counterpart, because I happen to like the "new" scenes. **** Stars

Better than it should have been.
In a world of cheap knock-offs, bad scripts, and assembly-line plots, Pitch Black shines. Arguably an Alien derivative, this film could have been another sci-fi, big effects, lame catch-phrase waste of 120 minutes, but it found quality where other films of this genre find crap. Pitch Black did not need to be this good. Instead of flat, cliche characters, Pitch Black delivers suprisingly human, unique, diverse, sympathetic survivors. Instead of a reaching, ridiculous tale filled with pathetic attempts to spark a sense of morality, it delivers a solid sci-fi/horror punch and lets the character development reveal its humanity. And instead of over-dramatized, over-used, commercial direction, it pulls the viewer into a beautiful, haunting, frightening world where the nightmare creatures are just another hurdle for our heroes (and anti-heroes) to survive. Granted, the story had some holes big enough to drive a truck through, but they were truly lost in the overall feel of this new sci-fi classic. Pitch Black is a staple in my collection, because it is far better than it had to be.

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