I recently saw Pitch Black, which came out in 2000.
BRAINSTORMING:
1. The plot is kind of a copy of Alien, although with different location.
2. A few of the character's are cliche, including the protagonist Riddick.
3.The movie is part of the sci-fi/horror genre, and it does a pretty masterful job of conveying that feeling of being trapped somewhere with a monster chasing you.
4. It has very logical characters versus unlogical, or childish.
5. It is a character study to an extent.
6.The aliens, who kill them are conceiled for a good while, making them more scary.
7. We never get a good look at what they are, this is a very interesting film technique, because it gives us a similar feeling to that of the characters. They never really know who never really know what the aliens are.
8. It takes place in the future.
9.The characters aren't all good guys.
10. It has a decently small budget, for a sci-fi movie.
11.The setting is in a dessert, providing restriction on character activity.
12. The script is well written.
13. The camerawork is also excellent.
14. The cinematogrophy goes from very light, to very dark, the transition is handled well.
15. In my opinion it's one of the only good performances Vin Diesel gives.
Review Of Pitch Black:
Pitch Black is takes a quite cliche story, the helpless and trapped in space story, and adds more interesting characters to it and a few twists. For example, the protagonist, Richard B. Riddick, is a notorious criminal, and another character is a bounty hunter, who is after Riddick. This adds tension between those characters, and Riddick is not present among the other characters for the first half of the movie. What's really excellent in Pitch black are the camera angles and the cinematography. They do an awesome job of capturing Riddick's motions as he fights the aliens, during a solar eclipse, hence the title Pitch Black. Also the special effects, for the budget, are excelletn as well. What Pitch Black accomplishes, that lots of movies of this genre fail at, is connecting you to the characters. If the minor characters were stupid or illogical, it would make it hard for us as the audience to want to help them escape that planet, which is ultimately a choice that Riddick has to make. Overall Pitch Black is an interesting take on a quite-worn out story, and is excellent on a technical level.
