Pitch Black (2000)
Fight evil with evil;
I’m exhausted tonight. so I’ve picked a movie that is both low brain power requirements and also set somewhere that looks so much warmer than the crap cold outside. It even ended up starting a franchise - although how good of a thing that is will probably depend on who you ask. The main actor really loved the character if nothing else, so regardless of who else might like it he’s got his own back for sure. Hope you aren’t afraid of the dark, tonight we are watching Pitch Black.
This here is a science fiction movie - you’ll know that because it starts off with a spaceship floating through space. Our main character - although in this I supposed he’s actually more of “one of the main characters” more so than the later films - is doing some narration talking about some of the folks aboard. As he’s doing so, things go wrong and it appears some rouge space rocks or debris of some kind comes ripping through the ship - and one of the cryopods - like machine gun fire. The main flight crew who aren’t just a corpse in a tube wake up and try to right things - but it turns out the ship has also veered off course towards a planet, and they are going in hot. Story made shorter - they crash, some folks survive (including our main prisoner) and we have a mystery phase as folks look for water and the escaped prisoner. We then have the second half of the movie that turns dark and much more horror movie, as it turns out they aren’t the only things on this planet.
Actors do a pretty good job here. There’s even a Keith David in here, who I frequently get the voice messed up with Laurence Fishburne even though they aren’t all that similar. Thankfully in this, I can at least see him so it’s harder to make that mess up. The main crew is really the pilot, the merc, and the prisoner - and their actors do a wonderful job with their roles. Of the bunch, I feel our lady pilot has the most range on display, although our prisoner gets to have moments where he does something more than just be cool and menacing. The other characters get moments to do some stuff and show some range, but especially when it comes to anything regarding development you are back to the main three. The prisoner gets the coolest lines and everybody’s favorite Vin is always good at playing that sort of quiet cool guy.
Again, arguably the pilot has the best arc, as both the merc and the prisoner really are in the same place as people at the start and end of the movie - but in a movei like this it might not matter too much as the body count rises. Most the other characters are pretty much just what they are - the religious dude is religious. The fancy guy isn’t the most helpful and worried about his stuff. That one other guy was there, I guess, for a while. It does enough with it’s characters that you get a feel for them, but doesn’t really push things to crazy for the most part. The most I feel like a side character really gets is the conversation between the prisoner and the holy man about religion - beyond that they are kind bodies padding the character count and potential body count fodder. The younger characters and there actors do a good job of not being annoying as all heck - with the one having a fun conversation with the prisoner - so that’s nice.
Gilligans wrecked on a planet of horror episode.
Story and characters aside, the movie does try pulling out twists here and there. Most the main three characters all exist in shades of grey as opposed to straight evil or not, and sometime that nature ties into some of the drama it has in there - will so and so abandon everyone? Will the prisoner shank everyone? Will they ever stop calling the pilot captain? Simple stuff like that - even if perhaps the entire concept of dealing with greys in itself is a far more complex and thoughtful way of doing things, lending itself to showing everyone that good people can make horrible decisions just as much as horrible people could make good ones. There’s also that religious conversation that happens, and that could provide a bit of stuff to think about if you are really into that kind of thing - although I will say it doesn’t overstay its welcome either, not like something that’s trying to be really pretentious about it. It’s got a moral background in there that someone might not really expect going in, but that just goes to show you that you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover.
You could probably judge an effects department by the cover sometimes though. It’s 2000s so you mostly know what to expect in that regard I think. It’s got some blue tint in there, and our prisoner does have some sweet night vision shots in there, but occasionally the creature’s feel a bit 2k CG. It does do a lot interesting with that though, including some creature vision and the likes. I’d overall say it’s pretty fine - any bad parts would really balance it out with the better points of the movie. It never feels like it’s lacking the budget to really do what it’s trying to, so that’s not a bad thing. The creatures themselves are neat looking enough, but again you do have that level of CG in there that might put some off from some of the designs. That said, there are a few weird parts to them that I’m not really so sure about, but it’s good enough to have fun with.
Audio is good enough - at least in the balance. I honestly don’t recall much of the music in the background, but thats really not anything new for me in the slightest - anyone whose read multiples of these knows that already. Sound effects do pretty good, and line deliveries are more than acceptable from an entertainment perspective. The actors interactions with each other are good though, and the soundscape is good enough that you get plenty of cues across the run time.
Riddick being creepy
So there you have it - a pretty decent movie with plenty of stuff to be fun. It’s got Vin in one of the first movies I remember seeing him in, although with my memory that doesn’t say a whole lot. It’s got decent effects, decent story, and some decent actors. There are a few times where the cutting can get real heavy music video, but how bad is that? Check it out if you got some time, there’s plenty worse for the time frame you could check out.