directed by david twohy . screenplay by jim wheat , ken wheat and twohy . starring vin diesel , radha mitchell , cole hauser . running time : 108 minutes . rated aa for offensive language and violent scenes . reviewed on march 16th , 2000 . my first exposure to " pitch black " came when the preview was played in front of " girl , interrupted " a month and a half ago . the preview hinted at monsters which lived on a sun-drenched planet but could only come out in the darkness . then : " an eclipse ! " how convenient , i thought ; i could see the whole movie playing out in my mind . i held out some hope that the filmmakers might surprise me , but sadly , actually watching " pitch black " did not prove to be a revelatory experience . " pitch black " is indeed as improbable , formulaic and predictable as its preview implies . the film is set sometime in the future . men travel the stars in enormous ships , cryogenically frozen for the duration of the voyage . one such spaceship is knocked off course and crashlands , killing all but a handful of the passengers and crew . the survivors include docking pilot caroline fry ( radha mitchell ) , uneasy with authority and plagued by self-doubts ; no-nonsense mercenary william johns ( cole hauser ) ; and richard riddick ( vin diesel ) , a convicted murderer . the planet on which they are marooned has three suns , and as a result is a dry , blasted terrain without plants or water . soon , though , the survivors discover evidence of a previous human expedition to the planet which appears to have been violently wiped out . the culprits soon become obvious : in underground caverns live hideous creatures which thrive in darkness and emerge onto the planet's surface only during a total solar eclipse , which in a feat of mathematical and physical improbability occurs like clockwork every twenty-two years . of course , the cycle is almost up and soon the survivors find themselves under assault from wave upon wave of the terrifying , merciless monsters which are almost invisible in the pervasive darkness . their only hope lies with the enigmatic riddick , whose eyes have been surgically altered to permit him to see in the dark . convenient indeed . but to be fair , films have to be permitted a certain degree of latitude when it comes to such coincidences ; without them , in many cases there just wouldn't be much of a movie . this is particularly true of science-fiction movies , which are so totally dependent on the imagined and the improbable to begin with . but such a leap of faith would be far easier to make if it were in the service of an entertaining movie . " pitch black " simply is not . the entire movie is little more than one long , drawn-out chase scene . the characters have to get from point a to point b while avoiding the monsters , and there isn't much more to " pitch black " than that . the movie is punctuated only by a few token nods to character development , as well as the obligatory deaths which occur with almost comical timing . it is so easy to forecast right from the start the identity of those characters who survive to the end , it's criminal . this is a classic example of writing by the numbers ; the screenplay by jim wheat , ken wheat and director david twohy could just as easily have been generated by a computer program , it is so routine . the best aspect of " pitch black " is the computer-animated special effects . there are some beautiful shots of the spaceship cruising past the rings of a saturn-like planet , and of the onset of the solar eclipse . the monsters are also well-designed , although they do seem to owe something to " alien " . twohy at least has the presence of mind to keep the monsters mostly out of sight for much of the film , adding to their sense of menace . even when they are fully unveiled , the lighting and camerawork keeps them indistinct . it's a shame , then , that " pitch black " utilizes them in such tired , unimaginative situations . they hammer against doors . they follow the party just out of sight in the darkness . they pop out of nowhere in an apparently empty corridor . there aren't many genuine frights here , and even the rare creepy moments are obvious and predictable . part of the movie's problem is that it develops few sympathetic characters to generate viewer interest . i found it difficult to be absorbed into the atmosphere of terror " pitch black " attempts to generate when i had absolutely no emotional investment in the characters whatsoever . i think it says something about the movie that of the three principals , the most sympathetic is the mass murderer , riddick . sort of a hunky hannibal lecter with super-powers , diesel does a good job of making riddick an intriguing anti-hero while not forgetting that he is , after all , still a criminal . mitchell and hauser , meanwhile , struggle futilely with their unmemorable , unlikeable characters . the rest of the ragtag band is largely forgettable , although keith david does what he can with the underdeveloped role of the spiritual imam . " pitch black " is a dismal and tedious exercise in moviemaking , failing even to provide the requisite thrills and chills , let alone living up to the enormous potential of the science-fiction genre . sci-f provides filmmakers with the opportunity to exercise the entire breadth of their vision and creativity , to do things no other genre permits . it is all the more unfortunate , then , to see a movie like " pitch black " dismiss this opportunity in favor of the banal and the ordinary . while the characters spend the entire movie running around the deathtrap planet , the audience is well advised to run in only one direction : away from the theater . either that , or go into cryogenic sleep until " pitch black " is over . copyright © 2000 shannon patrick sullivan . archived at <a href= " http : //www . physics . mun . ca/~sps/movies/pitchblack . html " >http : //www . physics . mun . ca/~sps/movies/pitchblack . html</a> 
