Pitch Black Movie Review

This movie is both a terrifying trip through a gauntlet of things that lurk in the dark, and a trip to redeem the soul of a man who at first identifies more with the monsters he faces than the people he is with.  Through the trip the main character a criminal named Riddick finds some things that reinforce his disillusionment, but others that stimulate his sense of honor.

The story is good but I find it a little too dark and Riddick is always a little too cold for me to get comfortable with it.  The fact is that Riddick is not a hero, and the story does not transform him into one.  At the beginning he is a dangerous monster of a man, and at the end he still is one, but he has found people he feels worthy of living, and that he grudgingly cares about. It shows that in the end even a monster can help his fellow man.

The show starts out with a cargo ship being disabled and having to crash land on a deserted planet.  One of the passengers is the dangerous criminal Riddick who escapes.  The rest of the passengers find a deserted settlement, and signs that things did not end peacefully.  The settlement has a spaceship, but no power cells.  It turns out that the planet they are on has three suns, and they are heading into a rare time when night will fall.  With the fall of night Monstrous creatures emerge, and Riddick, who can see better in the dark, rejoins the survivors, and begrudgingly helps them retrieve the power cells from the crashed ship.  During the journey some of the survivors die, and fights erupt.  At one point Riddick must step in to save a girl that was in disguise as a boy from being used as bait.  In the end Riddick has decided to leave the planet without the people but the pilot says she is willing to risk her life for them when Riddick asks.  This impresses him and he helps her save them.  In the process Riddick is overtaken by the monsters, but the pilot dies trying to save him.  He manages to win his fight with the monsters, decides to save everyone to repay her sacrifice, and regains some of his humanity in the process.

This movie will appeal to science fiction fans who like horror and suspense films as well.  It will also appeal to action fans because of the fight scenes.  This is not a movie for kids.

This movie can be found a www.amazon.com on disk or for streaming rental or purchase.