Pitch Black

Released by: Universal Studios
Released on: 3/31/2009
Director: David Twohy
Cast: Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Keith David
Year: 2000
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The Movie:

A reasonably low budget (the picture was made for twenty million) sci-fi/horror film shot in the middle of nowhere in Australia, Pitch Black wound up doing quite well at the box office and has since seen two follow up movies (one live action, one animated) and a couple of video game spin-offs.

The film follows a few passengers on a space ship that crash lands on a remote planet devoid of any obvious life forms. The survivors of the crash - a devout Muslim named Abu al-Walid (Keith David) and his two young travelling companions, the ship's pilot Carolyn Frye (Radha Mitchell), a pre-teen named Jack (Rhiana Griffith), a woman named Sharon (Claudia Black), an antiquities dealer named Paris Ogilvie (Lewis Fitz-Gerald), a bounty hunter named William Johns (Cole Hauser) and his captive wanted criminal, Richard Riddick (Vin Diesel) - find themselves in pretty dire straits. There isn't any water and there's no one around to help them and on top of that Johns has got the entire group convinced that Riddick, who has killed a few people in his time and who has had his eyes surgically altered to allow him to see in the dark, will slit their throats.

When some strange creatures make themselves known and the survivors find that a lunar eclipse is going to throw the entire planet into a blackout, it looks like they only way they'll be able to get off the planet alive is with Riddick's help, and time is definitely running out…

While the film became a success and launched a fair bit of 'Riddick Mania' by way of cash in's and spin offs, Pitch Black itself is a really lean, efficient, no bullshit horror movie. It's refreshingly low concept - it's really little more than the story of a group of people trapped in the dark and surrounded by monsters - and it cuts right to the chase making no apologies. Riddick is a complete bad ass in the movie, making for one of the coolest anti-heroes of the last few years, and Vin Diesel, love him or hate him, is awesome in the part.

David Twohy may have gone on to make a bit of an ass of himself, ranting about the high concepts that he had for the character and generally taking everything way, way, way too seriously but with this picture he really did do a fantastic job. The picture is tense, exciting, and technically impressive and while it borrows from Aliens at times, it's scary and fun. The bulk of the characters may be as thin as paper but the set up is good enough and the tension thick enough that you probably won't care that you don't really get to know anything about anyone. What makes the movie work is the unsettling relationship that develops between Riddick and everyone else left alive on the planet, and how that relationship twists and turns as he becomes the only one who can save them. This keeps us pretty happily on the edge of our seats for the better part of the picture and it all leads up to a solid and fairly unexpected ending.

The follow up film, The Chronicles Of Riddick, was a bit of a misfire but Pitch Black is still a rock solid thriller and it holds up incredibly well. Universal has included both the theatrical cut and the unrated cut of the movie on this Blu-ray release, the differences being that the unrated cut has three minutes of character extension bits thrown in that really don't change much at all.

Video/Audio/Extras:

The 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen 1080p/VC-1 encoded transfer looks pretty solid. There are definitely scenes where the contrast levels have been upped a noticeable bit for dramatic effect and there's a fair bit of grain in some scene but this is how the film has always looked, it's not nearly as glossy or colorful as Chronicles Of Riddick. Skin tones look good, there is plenty of detail in the image throughout playback (especially during close ups) and black levels stay strong from start to finish - always a good thing when so much of the movie takes place in the darkness.

The English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track on this disc is great. There are plenty of directional effects used throughout the movie and bass response is strong and powerful. The score sounds excellent and is nicely spread out across the mix while dialogue stays clear throughout playback. The levels are all properly balanced and there aren't any problems with hiss or distortion to note. Universal has done a very nice job here. For the theatrical version, optional DTS 5.1 tracks are provided in French and Spanish while subtitles are provided for both versions of the movie in English SDH, French and Spanish.

Most of the extras on this disc are going to look pretty darn familiar to those who owned the HD-DVD or the standard definition special edition release, starting with the first of the two commentary tracks that has been ported over. Here Vin Diesel, Cole Hauser and David Twohy periodically talk about their work on the film but just as frequently sit in front of the mics with little or nothing to say. There's a lot of dead air present in this track, which is unfortunate. The second commentary, with Twohy, producer Tom Engleman and SFX guru Peter Chang is much more interesting as it features a constant, steady stream of discussion about the picture. It's got a bit of a technical slant to it which might put people off but those who really want to know what went into making the picture should enjoy this talk, as it gets pretty in-depth in spots and is a genuinely interesting talk overall, though Twohy comes off as pretty pretentious at times.

From there we move on to the features, all of which are presented in non-anamorphic standard definition starting with the five minute The Making Of Pitch Black, which is an all too brief segment that lets Twohy, his cast and some of the crew members talk very briefly about the movie. It's way too short to be of much use. Equally uninteresting is Dark Fury - Advancing The Arc, which is nothing more than a promotional piece pimping the film's animated follow up film, which oddly enough hasn't been birthed onto Blu-ray yet (it would have been nice to see it released with this film and Chronicles Of Riddick). A View Into The Dark is another promotional piece, this time talking about how awesome the film's sequel is, it really doesn't have much to do with Pitch Black.

Through the U-Control functionality, Universal has provided the option to watch the movie with two different interactive options enabled. First up is Pitch Black Raw which, when turned on, shows some unfinished CGI and effects work in the picture-in-picture window. The second option is a decent Picture-In-Picture track that features scene specific cast and crew interviews and behind the scenes footage that plays during pertinent moments throughout the film.

Rounding out the extra features are a promo spot for the Riddick X-Box game that came out years ago and that is now no longer available (making this rather useless), Johns' Chase Log (a surprisingly dull piece in which Johns narrates his chase of Riddick to the point where we meet up with them at the beginning of the movie), The Chronicles Of Riddick Visual Encyclopedia (more narration from Johns over top of a glorified still gallery) and a brief introduction from David Twohy. Animated menus and chapter stops are also included.

The Final Word:

While the extra features are undeniably weak, the transfer and the audio are pretty impressive and Pitch Black holds up really well as a taut, tense, and well made sci-fi thriller.