Pitch Black (2000)
Last Watch Date - August 7, 2026
Total Times Watched - Three? Four?
Comments
I got the Chronicles of Narnia Riddick three-pack not super long ago. Hmm, maybe a couple years at this point. Despite that, I hadn't actually seen it in years until tonight. I mean like 20 years. This one was a classic back in college. What exactly does that mean though? I watched a lot of dumb (and bad) movies when I was in college. How does this one stack up?!
First of all, the daylight coloring in this movie SUCKS. They went for this super washed out thing because of the three suns. I get that. But it looked bad. They could've toned it down a little bit and kept it blue colored all the same. It became almost white and was annoying to look at. Minor nitpick but that's how I'm starting this out.
The acting in this movie ranges from "Sci-Fi Channel" to "Z-movie" and really I think it leans more toward the latter. It somehow works though. Keith David is one of my all-time favorite actors and he plays such a goofy character in this. Radha Mitchell is overall good but swings between full-on Aussie and regular American accents in this movie. Cole Hauser is delightfully stupid. Vin Diesel is absolutely terrible. But I mean all of this in the best way. It all works somehow! I think if they were too serious and good, it wouldn't work as well.
This is because the story itself is just silly scifi fun. I actually like the concept in this. It's an alien/creature movie, but it's also a "trapped and isolated" movie, BUT ALSO it's horror-adjacent with the people being eaten, AND it's kind of a mystery/thriller in some ways.
One thing that is just bad-bad and not fun-fan is the aging of the graphics in this movie. Woo boy is there some awful looking stuff. The creatures look ok for the most part (NOT THEIR TEETH), but the environment, the blood, the "creature vision" .. all pretty grim.
OH I have one more stupid complaint. SPOILER ALERT! but these bozos get off the planet and then immediately fly into the rocky rings of the planet? You can't immediately try to suicide after taking all of that time and effort to GTFO.
There are a fair bit of tropes in this movie, but you know what, I don't even care. It's fun and super entertaining.
Recommended?
Yeah, watch it!