Pitch Black
(Universal, 2000)
Pitch Black is tonight's Halloween Movie Madness movie. Well, I guess the new, full title is The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black. Odds are you are more familier with either the movie's sequel, The Cronicles of Riddick, or maybe even the extremely well done prequel video game, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.
The movie starts out showing a space ship with a bunch of cryo-lockers, filled with colonists, crew members, and Vin Diesel. We then get to hear Vin Diesel's thoughts about trying to figure out which way they are moving him(he is being taken to a prison, and is trying to figure out which lanes they are moving him in). Then, some space debree starts shooting through the hull, and kills the captain. The other two crew members are awakened, and find themselves crashing into a planet. The pilot can't get the front of the ship down, so she starts jettisoning the rear sections of the ship. She even tries to jettison the compartment with all of the passengers in the cryo-lockers. Well, the ship crashes down. Someone goes to bury the Navigator and another dead colonist, and he gets attacked by... well... something, and they accuse Riddick of killing him (after all, he is a brutal killer). They find an abandoned mining colony with a supply of water and an escape ship. A bunch of other stuff happens, but again, I try to post as few spoilers as possible.
Anyway, the real stars of the movie are the aliens. Much like aliens in general, they dwell in the dark. However, they have a very good reason to stay in the dark: light will kill them. Kinda like gremlins, but it isn't limited to just bright sunlight. You could kill these things with a glo-stick. Well, maybe not kill them, but at least irritate their skin a little bit. During the course of the movie, an eclipse starts. This is very, very bad for everyone involved. Well, not Riddick, because he is a bad-ass.
As far as the visual effects, the whole movie looks very great. From the horizon, to the glances at space we get, to the creatures themselves, they all look great.
Of course, I think you should see this movie. The sequel is a completely different type of movie, and while I personally enjoy it, I can't guarantee you would too.
