Pitch Black (2000)
Before people had heard of Riddick, hell, before most people had even heard of Vin Diesel, there was Pitch Black. A great monster movie written by David Twohy, likely most famous at the time for The Fugitive. Although it takes a while for it to be a monster movie (about halfway through the movie to be exact, before that it's more of a paranoid thriller/sci-fi survival movie), the premise is done really well. I wouldn't call it subtle, but at the core of this admittedly simple mid-budget movie is a unique story and a heart of 2000's gold. That sounds like a really pretentious statement, so for now I'll just say that it's a movie I really like, partially by association with the Escape from Butcher Bay video game, but largely on its own merits. It strikes a very very specific chord for me, having grown up primarily in the few years following this movie, so it feels really nostalgic to me despite having watched it until a few years ago. This could also be because I played Escape from Butcher Bay growing up, but it also reminds me bizarrely of Halo 2. Maybe someone else reading this feels the same way, but maybe I'm just built different (stupid).
The movie is from an era where there were deliberate color choices, but it still looks a bit washed out at time. What's far more fascinating to me are the editing choices. Sometimes, usually without warning, you'll get weird camera skews, the film going negative, rapid cuts to ultra close ups, among other things. As a whole the movie is very stylized (which is hard to convey in text form), but I love it. I'm sure it polarizing, but it wouldn't be the same movie without it. The lighting is really well done at least, which is very important because the lighting does a 180 halfway through. Spoilers ahead, in case you were still here without having seen the movie. We start the movie with a crash landing on a planet with prepetual sunlight, except for the occasional month-long planet engulfing eclipse (don't worry about the mechanics of this). The problem is, this eclipse is right around the corner, and there are bioraptors waiting for the night to arrive to feast on flesh, be it survivor or kin. We switch from a brutal double sunrise to a pitch black (heh get it) darkness. The story follows an interesting arc based on this light/dark cycle, which is the main hook of the plot.
The characters, perhaps predictably, follow a sort of light/dark cycle as well. The pilot Fry is selfish and distant at the start, and grows to become a selfless hero. Johns goes from a stand-up space cop to a junkie merc out to save his own skin. Other characters go from confident to meek, from living to dead, and from boy to girl (kinda), except for the Imam who largely stays the same. Which brings us to Riddick. For a franchise with several movies named after the guy, we take a while for him to really start being present. He starts off as a threat to the rest of the survivors, almost like a slasher villain, to being an anti-hero who does what it takes to get the survivors offworld. It's not exactly the most subtle, or complicated, or surprising plotline, but the dynamic shift works really well, thanks to the three main characters played incredibly well by their respective actors. Call it a hate triangle if you will.
Leaving behind the plot, I also want to bring some attention to the music. I'm a sucker for music in movies and games, especially if it's actually good, and I'm pleased to say that the music here is good. It's original, but instead of being generic sci-fi synths and strings, it's very ambient, with some almost world-music like tendencies. Another Halo 2 vibe to add to the pile.
Ultimately, Pitch Black is a movie that is clean, crisp, monster filled romp with Vin Diesel in his first leading role. It's grounded (at least relatively to the rest of the series), and it's a perfect microcosm of why I love media from the late 90s/early 2000s. It's stylish in a way that fills me with fuzzy feelings because of the media I consumed growing up, and although it has some rough patches (Imam's character really only serves as a foil/viewer guide without any major arc), it's a movie I will forever cherish. Remember that moment...
