Pitch Black, Is It Great?

I am a long time fan of the original Pitch Black film and i am of the opinion that this weird sci fi action has been under looked. If you look into this movie you can find a lot of different hidden subtleties to the cast and themes of the film. I absolutely believe that this movie has merits beyond the meager rating it has on IMDB. The question is those do these qualities make it great? Check out my full opinion on Youtube.



Do you agree with me or do you think I am over blowing the whole thing?

Sorry bud but couldn't help but notice you've got yourself to enough posts before posting your video.
Might have better to be more honest than doing that on MoFo.


A spoiler alert would also be a good thing given the explanation of the plot you gave for the entire movie from start to finish, including the fates of all of the characters, rather than just reviewing the movie.

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Addition... do I agree with you opinion?


Well you said Fry is the only strong female character outside of Ripley... which is wrong for a start... what about Scully, Uhura, Arroway, Everdeen?


... it's hard to agree or disagree with something which is stated as fact. And is, in fact, fact.


What this video is, is statement of fact, and asking if it's right.

I apologize, I do post a spoiler warning in the video, but i can add that here as well if that helps. I am not trying to be disingenuous. Admittedly my goal is to get feed back on the reviews/editorials i am doing, but i have viewed this website for quite awhile without posting. i thought that my content was relevant to this website and was hoping to receive opinions dissenting or not on my views on the films I love. I didnt post any of my other content from youtube here as it is not relevant.

Fair enough, but also, asking if someone agrees with your opinion, must consist if you actually giving an opinion.
The video itself is a series of factual statements of the plot and the character fates.


At the start of the video, you also mention how the movie is underseen and underrated... surely, to get people to see the movie, would require a review, rather than as I said as a rundown of the plot and character fates.


If someone hasn't seen the movie, then watching your video will simply explain in detail what happens, hence, there's no need to watch the movie.

Right there are a handful of other well done female sci fi characters, but they are more than outnumbered by bad ones. Everdeen is far too much of an emotional teen for my liking. Ohora seems to caught up in romantic problems to present any other ideas (in the movies not classic Trek). Sculley is from television and doesn't fall under this spectrum of movie personas. Still did you find Fries character compelling? I stand by my opinion that she is one of the only good female characters out there for horror sci fi. Do you think the character progressions added another layer to the film? Maybe the poor effects and over the top action are too much of detriment for these other feature to matter. I am defiantly presenting my side of the argument that it is great, but that isn't the final verdict. I very much want to encourage debate around these movies. I agree that in the future i should be far more careful about broad statements, but does that invalidate the entire review?

I see perhaps if i provided a link so that the intro and outro were linked. as i make a point to keep both spoiler free. I feel the core of my content is in my interpretation of the film which does require spoilers. I do consider the statements i made opinionated as there is no solid dialog that expresses most of these things. I was trying to draw parallels between characters to emphasis the themes of the film. Your reaction tells me that at least in your case i have failed. My other reviews are structured differently as i focus on different elements for different films. In this case the plots progression is incredibly important for the overall thematic meaning. Thanks for the input!

Your video doesn't invalidate anything, that's not what I meant.


My point was, your video was a long statement of the plot and what happens to the characters rather than an opinion of something you took from the movie.


I totally agree, Pitch Black is a great movie, it along with the sequels made my Top 100 recently... but your video is simply a rundown of the plot, with the start saying that Fry is the only strong female sci-fi character aside from Ripley.


That, that statement about Ripley and Fry, is an opinion... and I'd strongly agree... Fry is a strong sci-fi Female, possibly on a par with Ripley... but the rest of the video is statement of fact about plot.

I was trying to asses the underlying themes of survival and animal instinct. I thought that by showing how profoundly each character responded to this incredible stress it showed how the film as a whole was showing us a myriad of ways that one may respond under pressure. Which when brought together gives us a statement on the human condition. That we as people can't know how trauma will change us. Angels become demons, and demons angels. Something i really wouldnt expect out of what looks like a crappy sci fi film. I guess it could be viewed as a statement of facts, but i was expecting more debate surrounding the depths of the characters i imply in this review. am i over blowing these slight reactions to fit a theme or was this theme always there but unappreciated. You have given me quite a bit to consider moving forward with these reviews. I thank you for that.

Gimme a few minutes... I'm going to quote a review of my own... I'm not perfect, but this might be the wording that I was looking for...

This is just a rough review of what I did for RoboCop and the remake:


Contains personal input and personal output and opinions rather than just statement of fact of what actually happened in the plot and character fates.

Original RoboCop:


Ok, I’m going for the older movies at the moment but Robo is one that needs to be reviewed by someone as new to the site as I am.
Yes, I know, also another Verhoeven movie.

Set in the future, a cop is gunned down brutally by a head gang of criminals.
After extensive surgery, he is turned into a modern ‘Million Dollar Man’ crossed with Frankenstein, though with no memory of his ‘human life’ from before.

An almost post apocalyptic look at the future of mankind sees the cop called Murphy attempt to find his past, and his future, by piecing together the technicalities that lead to his ‘death’.

‘Computer programmed’ as a ‘product’ of the police force and their officials to the point of almost mental incapacitation, he faces adversaries from not only the outside, but also from deep within.
Robocop is not just an ‘actioner’ or a sci-fi, or even a futuristic movie of death and destruction. It’s a long close look at where humanity is going.

The movie in a whole is so far ahead of it’s time that at 20 odd years ago, when the movie was released, it seemed far-fetched with the police uniforms and cars and society’s views and Military tactics involved in the film.
These days though, it seems on the tilting point of dated due to being only a few years behind modern day (2012).

An absolute masterclass in film making. Verhoeven’s take on the future is a spookily realistic and well visioned view of our future. Something Verhoeven is a master of.
Weller as the titular Robocop is another masterclass on the acting scale. Miming robotic bird movements and bringing a human element to a creature made almost entirely of titanium is a wonder. How he does it, is almost a myth.


Rob Bottin’s creation of Robocop’s armour and makeup (especially when Robo removes his upper mask) is a wonder to behold. It looks, even by today’s standard, genuinely real and has yet to be bettered in any movie I’ve yet to see.

What makes the movie really special is the quiet moments, where Robo is reliving some of his past ‘unerased’ memories. It’s something that really brings the audience on a par with Robo’s torn feelings of duty, love, humanity and sheer programming.
Mixed with the haunting soundtrack, the movie will live with you for a long time, if not forever.

Add to that mix some awesome shoot’ em up action scenes, explosions, black humour and melting men in vats of acid and you’ve got a sure fire hit.

Even if sci-fi isn’t you thing, again I say, this is still a must see. You haven’t seen a movie until you’ve seen this one. Just make sure you’ve got the popcorn ready.


I said that my last review, that #11 Predator was a near perfect movie at 99%.
100% to Director Mr Verhoeven, Writer Mr Nuemeier, Designer Mr Rob Bottin and the music by the wonderfully enigmatic Basil Poledouris.




Remake:
Ugh.

RoboCop… one of the most iconic 80s movies ever made.

A product of its time in many ways, but is also one of the finest precognitive movies too. RoboCop, under the helm of Verhoeven, shows glimpses of a future that seemed far-out… but turned out to be true. It was also a tightly wound nest of boxes that surprised the viewer on every level.
It had class, style and soul.

This remake is simply a product of its time: All CGI, and no writing to back it up.
We have zero charisma from the production team. The film simply plays out in a 123, ABC script line, has zero to no realisation involved and even less emotional connection when it comes to the character writing.

There’s nothing in this movie to keep the viewer’s attention. Sure, there’s some nifty looking effects, I was pretty impressed at the reveal of RoboCop’s inner workings… but it’s a scene that was
A) A question we didn’t ask
B) An answer we didn’t need

Also, a greenscreen and CGI is no match for Rob Bottin’s work on Weller’s face.

So that’s it really. The movie just sort of, exists.

As for the character writing… poor. Very, very poor.
As an example, we have the rewritten Clarence Boddicker in the shape of a guy called Fallon, or Vallon, maybe Thallon? Not sure what his name was tbh… and I don’t really care, and neither did the filmmakers either by all accounts as he was played by a non-actor and had all of 30 seconds of screen time before he was, quite easily, dispatched by our titular Hero.

Lewis too. A white woman, now a black man, who for some reason, decides to play the race card at random in a scene in which it has no place.
What’s worse with that line, is there was no lead up to it. No exposition for it. A totally random race joke for the sake of it.
Lewis also, originally was RoboCop’s lifeline. Robo’s partner and almost love interest too. In this film, Lewis doesn’t do anything. It’s only in the third act that this non-character appears and simply stands in front of the ED-209 units so they can’t shoot RoboCop.

I mean, this is the treatment of all of the characters throughout the movie.
This character is this, that character is that. Action! Cut! Print it. Get it in the cinemas quick.

Even the iconic lines from the original show up and are slapped back down again with ignorance, and in scenes with little payoff.
Like Lewis’ race joke, the iconic “Dead Or Alive You Are Coming With Me” line is slapdashed into a random scene, just for the sake of it.


The acting is about as good as you can expect from such a troubled production.
Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton and Abbie Cornish doing the by-the-numbers thing and our non-actor in Patrick Garrow as Fallon, Vallon or whatever his name was occasionally grimacing at his goons.

Joel Kinnaman is best on show as Murphy/RoboCop though. Gladly so, but again, there’s little substance to this rewritten role and the dialogue he was given is, well, generic.
He did ok though as Robo, but, the rewritten and more human RoboCop is simply a role that any actor could do.
Peter Weller had to work at his role, he had to become RoboCop.
Kinnaman just simply had to turn up and recite his lines. There was nothing different, nothing original.



This movie really revolves around the CGI and action.
It’s exceptionally well rendered though too. But like I said, it is no substitute for Rob Bottin’s mastery of prosthetics and makeup.
The action is choreographed well too, but again, another slap down comes from the piss poor writing and poor audience-character connections.
Good choreography needs to be made exciting.

Pitch Black itself:


A space vessel that is transporting people in hypersleep crash-lands on a strange deserted, desert planet that has 3 suns.
The handful of survivors is faced with the prospect of dying of thirst unless they can find a way off the planet. With them is a bounty hunter and his pay cheque, a convicted murderer called Riddick. Riddick is no normal criminal though, he has strange glowing eyes and an inhuman strength, and he’s also extremely intelligent.
After Riddick manages to escape, certain members of the group begin to vanish and immediately they fear the convict is now hunting them. On later inspection of a nearby cave system they realise that something much worse is at play. With the addition of what appears to be a total eclipse of the planet, the group must rely on Riddick, to protect them from what hides in the caves.

It’s an extremely original piece of writing, especially for a sci-fi. The survival story of crash landing on a planet and having to find a way home is simplistic but that’s where the film leaves conventional storytelling at the door.
The whole relying on the ‘bad guy’ take, is extremely well put together, if a little cliché with why they had to rely on him, but the whole film is based around the premises of certain situations and events happening for a reason, or there could be no story.

The characters too are used nicely, they all have little secrets and hidden pasts that are revealed over the course of the movie and Riddick in particular is kept as a mystery throughout the film. Only the occasion insight into his character is shown but the viewer is never really sure if it’s true or not.

The effects are another plus point, though there are the occasional faults with some of the CGI, it’s still really well rendered and the puppetry work is also top notch.
As for the action, it shows small hits of excitement from time to time but the film is mainly based on running and hiding and the fears of something jumping out of the shadows. When it gets going though, it works and the tensions that the film works on are well conceived.
The film also doesn’t hold back with the gore when it's needed either.

As for the acting, Vin Diesel as Riddick is by far the best in show. He encapsulates the character brilliantly and makes the protagonist/antagonist role completely his. It’s the role that most people associate him with too.
Cole Hauser is a close second as the bullsh*tter bounty hunter William J Johns. Hauser is at his usual and hits his lines professionally.

One thing that lets the film down is the mildly confusing dialogue near the beginning, it seems to have been written without a wider audience in mind. Kind of like a language barrier.
Some of the shooting feels a little naive at times too, but this is an original film, so I guess it's passable.
Another fault is Rhiana Griffith as Jack, it’s extremely hard to believe "Jack’s secret" and Rhiana is wooden to the point of being annoying.

All in all a low-key and almost experimental sci-fi that works in some places but not in others but is still certainly a film worthy of a high rating.

i appreciate that its a sum up of the movie and it is a interesting review absolutely. However, it feels a bit farther away from my goal with my reviews. As much as i want to draw attention to Pitch Black for new audiences. I also wanted to draw attention to some less notable details viewers may have missed. I am saddened you view the entire review as a statement of fact. I though that the deaths of each character in this specific film had larger implications than the pen and paper death implied. I find almost no one i speak to about Pitch Black is aware of the larger themes of the movie. That was my goal here and i want a better way to present that idea. I do a separate section called Hot movie Review that meets your expectations a lot more cleanly, but with my Is it Great series i wish to dissect films rather than just review. I really want to talk about the themes of Pitch Black, or the Action in the Raid or the subtext to Stranger than fiction. All are examples were its a part of the film that i am trying to represent. In this case because the theme is so strongly tied to the plots structure it felt necessary to analysis the plot in more detail than i usually would. Do you think this is the wrong place for these kinds of discussions? and further more how would you suggest restructuring this review to push my opinion?

I like Pitch Black a lot.

Ugh... Robocop? Really, Rodent? Let up a bit on the newbie.


@Roommate, of the four reviews on the site, I've given Pitch Black the highest rating. If you'd like to compare, my review is here.

Meanwhile, I gave it the lowest rating. To be fair, that's far from my best review but my rating still stands.

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I'm a Pitch Black fan too but it's far from great sci-fi. A solid action flick which appeared before the renaissance in action we've seen in recent years but no, not great.

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I would contend that it should be held to the standards of a Character Drama because that's what it's best at.

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"Well, at least your intentions behind the UTTERLY DEVASTATING FAULTS IN YOUR LOGIC are good." - Captain Steel

I loved Pitch Black, it was a low budget small film that completely took everyone by surprise, me and my mates loved it and watched it endlessly... all the sequels were bollocks

I like Pitch Black, heck I even like the weird and hated sequel.

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