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Review #62: Pitch Black (aka: The Chronicles Of Riddick: Pitch Black).
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.
My rating 85%
Review #62: Pitch Black (aka: The Chronicles Of Riddick: Pitch Black).
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.
My rating 85%
