"Pitch Black" is a low concept, high octane sci-fi movie that has more recycled plot devices than a ’55 Chevy has replacement parts! Yet, as derivative as it is, there is enough invention and credible performances from a cast of relative unknowns to save it from the junk heap.

A space craft careens out of control and crash lands on the uncharted desolate planet that sucked the ship into its gravity. Fry (Rhada Mitchell), the only surviving officer, must take responsibility for a motley group of passengers from her interplanetary ‘Stagecoach’ and guide them to safety. She is forced to rely on the survival skills of a futuristic Ringo Kid named Riddick, played with seething gusto by Vin Diesel. He’s an escaped con in the custody of Johns (Cole Hauser), a ruthless bounty hunter with a few vices of his own. He knows that the towering Riddick is a thinking, killing machine who will try to escape at all costs. Not even the dark goggles that protects Riddick’s implanted night-scope eyes from the burning light of day and the bright incandescent glow of artificial light can hide that fact. But Fry is willing to give Riddick his shot at redemption, if he can help them all survive.

At it’s core, "Pitch Black" is old hat as a survival story. From desert epics ("The Lost Patrol"-1934) to westerns ("Rawhide"-1951), the scenario of men and women under siege at a remote outpost transcends genres. "Pitch Black" also has elements of "Outland" (1981) - a movie that borrowed freely from "High Noon" (1952) - and "Von Ryan’s Express" (1965) with one character’s outstretched hands replicating the image of Von Ryan’s last ditch effort to reach a moving train with the Nazis in hot pursuit. Then there’s those "Alien" movies! So what’s new?

The most intriguing aspects of "Pitch Black" hint at a life cycle that is dependent on the planet’s alignment with its three suns. A prism of blinding bleached tints gives the feel of their unrelenting heat. An one eye popping sunset of finger painting type swirls adds a kaleidoscope of color and hue to the scorched landscape. An abandoned scientific outpost hides the secret of the planet’s prolonged daylight, and the impending solar eclipse that occurs every twenty four years when long toothed winged creatures leave their hidden caverns to swarm their world in the pitch black dark of night. The alien species created by writers Jim & Ken Wheat and writer/director David Twohy devour their own kind in the absence of animals, plants, and water. Any high school science student knows that their must be plant life on a planet to help manufacture oxygen to make life possible. Alien rain and the ooze of dead monsters soak the ground possibly sowing the seeds for a rebirth of other life forms that could sustain the planet over a renewed life cycle. A cycle that could claim the lives of Fry, Riddick and the other crash survivors.

If anything, "Pitch Black" is a collage of futuristic pulp, action and sci-fi concepts pasted to its threadbare canvas of a man vs. monster plot. The movie may work as a pure action/ survival flick on its most basic level, but some of the underlying ideas that manage to surface through the plot’s cracks suggests that the filmmakers were striving for something more.

Copyright 2000

"Rocket Ship XM" (1950) - This B/W low budget movie’s been unjustly lampooned on Mystery Science Theater. This is often considered the first movie to treat space travel seriously. A ship destined for the moon goes off course and lands on Mars where the crew encounter a new stone age in a post nuclear world. The Martian scenes were restored to tinted reds when released on video. This picture also boasts the only soundtrack written by Ferde Grofe, the composer of Grand Canyon Suite. With Hugh O’Brien and Lloyd Bridges.

"Destination Moon" (1950) - This Oscar winner for special effects was created with the help of George Pal and rocketeer Herman Oberth who was an adviser for Fritz Lang’s silent space fantasy "Woman in the Moon" in 1939. Title tells all.

"When Worlds Collide" (1951) - Another George Pal Oscar winner for special effects tells the story of a planet that is about to collide with earth and the efforts of a team of scientists to find another habitable planet.

"Robinson Crusoe on Mars" (1964) - A colorful sci-fi reworking of the classic survival tale of by Daniel DeFoe. Plays better than it sounds.

"The Lost Patrol" (1934) - A John Ford classic about a lost British platoon who are picked off one by one at a desert outpost by marauding Arabs The crackle of rifle fire is startling against the silence of the desert. With a great Boris Karloff as a religious fanatic and Victor McLaglen. Scripted by Dudley Nichols.

"Rawhide" (1951) - Outlaws hold hostages at a stage coach way station until they can make their getaway. With Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward. Also scripted by Dudley Nichols. Hmmmmm!

"The Arrival" (1996) - A literate imaginative take on the aliens-are-here story. Charlie Sheen monitors the signals from space targeted at remote outposts around the world. When he tries to reveal a plot to take over the world, he not only gets fired from his job , but strange things begin to happen. Lots of fun!