Pitch Black (2000)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie Pitch Black (2000).

I have to complain about one thing.  Why Vin Diesel was narrator at the beginning? When movie was released, he wasn't big name actor. Him bein,g narrator set stage for him being main character. After that movie tries to make him look like he is the villain of the movie. Actually, there is no real main character. Fry and Johns are closest to that until Riddick takes the lead near the end. Until that he is unknown component of group.  He is wild card after that too, but no longer serial killer, who could kill everyone else.

Movie start with crash landing of commercial transport ship. Ship was transporting dangerous criminal Riddick among civilian passengers. Ship crashes to desert planet. Riddick, docking pilot Fry, bounty hunter Johns and few civilians survive the crash. Riddick escapes shortly after the crash. Fry and  Johns take the lead and start to search for Riddick. Riddick is caught after one civilian mysteriously disappears. Riddick was there and others think he killed the civilian. After closer inspection, everyone realizes, Riddick is not what they should worry about.

I liked, how there were no good characters. Everyone had their flaws. Maybe imam and his group were most flawless, but they had backseat throughout the movie. Fry tried to drop all civilian passengers to save herself. Another crew member managed to prevent that. Johns acted like police, but  he was drug addict bounty hunter. He was ready to kill one civilian to make her a bait for monsters. And Riddick was killer, who only cared for himself. He cared for others twice and he almost got killed because of that.

I also liked, how movie made rules and followed them. Ok, first time we saw the monsters, they weren't as sensitive to light as they were later. Some sensitivity was there, but not so much, that the lights people used last half of the movie, would have kept them safe. Light sensitivity was nice idea and it was used well.  Then to nitpicking. Planet with two rings moved quite fast. With that speed, night shouldn't have lasted that long. It was so close, gravity should make both planets to crash.  Less oxygen in air was forgotten quite fast. First half people used extra oxygen, but they adapted to it by half way point. It wasn't major rule, but could have been used more.

Movie is interesting scifi horror survival movie. It is not classic, but have many good things. It introduced us Riddick. It made planet look alien place. It had interesting monsters and characters. It doesn't have many flaws. It just lacks something, that makes movies classics. I can't pinpoint what it lacks. It would have been nice to see more Claudia Black, but that is not it. Sequel managed to put all piece in their correct place, but not without creating new problems. We get to that next time.