If you like the Alien Trilogy you will love this film (Pitch Black (DVD))

Member Name: gromitboy

Product:	Pitch Black (DVD)
Date:	05/05/02 (13 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cinematography is phenomonal, proves that an unknown cast can still make a great movie, will have you on the edge of your seat

Disadvantages: plot is cliche ridden, characters are often cut short before you can sympathise with them

I went into this film expecting a second rate hangover cure, and I came out not only grinning but shaking too.

So whats it all about? Well the plot is pretty cliched - but don't let that stop you seeing it. Its all about a group of seemingly ordinary futuristic strangers (and one mass murderer) who crash land their spaceship on a remote deserted planet. Too cut a long story short, they soon realise that they are not alone on this planet - they are sharing it with an enormous amount of flesh-hungry creatures that only like dark places...and then to top it off, it appears that they have crash landed only hours before a total eclipse of the suns (there are 3 of them). Yes yes I know...its the kind of thing you'd find on the bookshelf in an airport or in a badly written late night tv movie....but plot aside this film has a great deal more to offer than what it has on the surface.

The cinematography of this movie is outstanding, almost all of the footage before the eclipse is in a beautiful (hangover friendly) cepier brown. The character studies on the strangers, although quite often cut short by them coming to some kind of grisly end, is quite remarkable...often feeling like you are reading an undiscovered Philip K Dick novel. And most of all, the suspense in places can keep even the most sturdy of men on the edge of their seats.

Don't watch this film for the actors (you won't recognise any of them apart from maybe Vin Diesel (who is on top form), possibly the girl from "Farscape" (although underwritten) and even more remotely you may recognise the leading lady as starring in the aussie soap "neighbours").....Don't watch this film for the plot (if you want the plot watch the alien trilogy and then mix up all three plots)....Watch this film for one reason and one reason only - pure suspense and enjoyment.

This is a classic horror thrown into a new perspective...sit back and enjoy.

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