The space transport vessel Hunter-Gratzner carrying 40 people on-board crashes on a desert planet when the ship is struck in a meteor storm. There are only 12 survivors among them are pilot Carolyn Fry (Who has assumed command after the ships captain is killed) bounty hunter William J. Johns religious man Abu Al-Walid Antiques dealer Paris P. Ogilvie runaway teenager Jack settlers John Zeke Ezekiel and his lover Sharon Shazza Montgomery and Richard B. Riddick a dangerous escaped convict. Marooned the 10 survivors finds the barren and hot desert-scape has sunlight from three suns. Not only must they find food and water and worry about Riddick the survivors find themselves being hunted by the planets flesh-eating alien inhabitants when the planet is engulfed in darkness which happens every 22 years as they emerge from underground to hunt and eat all signs of life. Fry and the survivors find Riddick is their best chance of survival as Riddick has surgically-enhanced ...
Review
Pitch Black is a survival story. Its about how to survive in an hostile alien world against even more hostile enemies. The task gets even more difficult when the nearest enemies can be found within your own surviving group.
The plot of Pitch Black is quite usual and has been seen several times before in different variations. But what makes this movie shine above others is its wellwritten characters.
The group consists of very different people with few more interesting than the others Jack a boy with a secret Fry a pilot having hard time with her own conscience Johns a bounty hunter with a drughabit Imam a holy man facing the fact that God is sometimes cruel and Riddick a convict and a murderer learning to value others not only himself. Characters start to live in the movie. They arent only paper like in many other movies of this genre. You start to care for the characters especially for Riddick though that feels quite odd. He is supposed to be the bad guy. In this movie the line between light and pitch black is very thin. All characters are familiar with both.
Other thing that works in this movie is the casting. Rarely do actors fit to their roles this well. Radha Mitchell is suitable for Fry. Cole Hauser brings the right amount of cruelness and sense of responsibility for Johns. But the most impressive work is done by Vin Diesel. He does great job as Riddick. In his hands Riddick is quite creepy definitely very dangerous and also deep character just as he is supposed to be.
So how do you survive in Pitch Black Keep your friends close and enemies even closer.