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| The strange planet with three suns. |
The Science-Fiction genre is not something I’ve always appreciated,
but recently that seems to have changed, enjoying films like Ken Russell’s
Altered
States (1980) and Ridley Scots recent release
Prometheus
(2012) and when a colleague at my Film Club loaned me a copy of the
American cult movie
Pitch Black (2000) it reinforced my new found admiration for
the genre. The secret of a good sci-fi movie is that it must appear totally
believable and David Twohy film does just that.
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| The escaped convict Richard B Riddick. |
As well a full contingent of crewmembers the transport ship
Hunter Gratzner is also carrying 40 passengers and a dangerous prisoner known
as Riddick (Vin Diesel) who is accompanied by a lawman William J Johns (Cole
Hauser). When the ship collides with a meteor shower they awake from their
cryo-sleep to find the Captain dead and the ship completely out of control.
Taking command of the situation Docking pilot Carolyn Fry (Radha Mitchell)
crash-lands the transporter on to a strange planet with three suns; Riddick
uses this confusion to make his escape. The only way to get off the planet is
to rebuild the spacecraft found on an abandoned space station. There is not trace of the stations original occupants
but when the visitors discover the reason for their disappearance they are
forced to turn to Riddick to help them escape the horrors of this unknown
world.
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| We've got to get out of this place!!! |
Thrilling and exciting with some strong characters
especially Riddick the dangerous convict whose surgically altered eyes allows
him to see in the dark, a highly skilled individual who has a vast knowledge of
how to kill! We have a story that completely holds your attention, some great
special effects, some scary creatures and a great location, filming took place
in the remote Australian town of Cooper Pedy, a place described as a unique
environment that looks more desolate than Mars, (does any body actually live
there?) and where the futuristic thriller Mad
Max (1979) was filmed. Great fun.
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| The End? Possibly. |
I've been strongly impressed by the Pitch Black. It is basically a movie about humanity. It's most striking.
ReplyDeleteThe first half of the movie seems a bit like a mediocre horror with great landscape - and I was initially thinking it was just so. But in the light of the whole movie, what looked like typical horror absurds became more like human mistakefullness, struggle and misjudgement. Somehow in all their flaws they still were worth fighting for. And sacrifice for. Quite moving movie for a movie, I would say.
And infinitely corresponding with religiuos theme, both inside and outside the movie. 'Here's my God, Mr Riddick'. The last dialogue line of both Fry and Riddick characters give a hint, in a way. And just shows how brilliant the story is shown as a whole, in different aspects, with deeper thought behind it.
Because I'm quite a fan of Aliens (Xenomorphs), I enjoed the crash-landing scene and beasts much.