May 16th, 2013 
Justin Proper 
For The Love Of Film is a weekly column from film nerd and lover of all movies Justin Proper. Sometimes you need some help to figure out how to enjoy movies, and we are here to help! No longer will you need to fear movie night because your friends have no taste in film. With this column you will be able to love even the worst gems to ever grace the silver screen.
It is no secret that Vin Diesel is a badass. As soon as you see him show up in a movie you know shit is about to go down. Sometimes he is an extreme sports athlete turned government agent (yeah, that was actually the plot of xXx, in case you forgot), sometimes he is an underground street racer, and sometimes he is a robot from outer space sent to destroy humanity that ends up making everyone cry by saying the line “Superman” right before he blows himself up. None of these roles come close to how badass he truly is, for that we need to look towards my favorite character he has ever played on screen.
Not quite.
I am speaking of Richard B. Riddick, of course. Starting with Pitch Black in 2000 and spawning two sequels (so far), one animated short, and two video games the character of Riddick has proven to be Vin Diesel’s personal favorite character and the perfect sci-fi anti-hero. When the trailer for the new film Riddick was released yesterday I decided to look up exactly how popular the first two films actually were, as I was in middle/high school when they were released and I watched a lot of really bad films back then. In fact, I am fairly certain I saw Queen Of The Damned three times in theaters and that movie is shitter than the dumb Transformer movies. Sure enough, neither Pitch Black or The Chronicles Of Riddick were certified fresh so I watched them again and decided this week I would make sure people knew that these movies still rule.
I haven’t seen someone pull of goggles this well since Seth Green in Can’t Hardly Wait.
It has been over a decade since Pitch Black was released so I will give you a refresher of the plot in case you have not seen it since then. Basically there is this ship that crashes on to a desert planet and Riddick is one of the passengers. He was being transported by one of the crew to collect a bounty as he is wanted for murder. A handful of people survive the crash and eventually they realize they will need to free Riddick from his chains in order to stay alive as there are hostile alien creatures all over the planet and they are out for blood. When the suns eventually set the creatures come out and Riddick is the only one who can see in the dark so he must lead the way back to the wrecked ship after they scavenge parts from a settlement. Then there is a bunch of action, tons of death, and some people make it out alive. Oh, Riddick makes it out, but you already knew that because I said there are two sequels earlier in this column.
Like anything could kill this dude.
So why should you watch Pitch Black? Wait, that plot was not enough to sell you? Fine. How about because the action is amazing? There are no fewer than six deaths at the hands of the creatures (or the other crew members in one case) and each one is brutal. People get ripped in half, impaled, shot, decapitated and one unlucky bastard even gets his skin torn from his flesh by a swarm of bat like creatures. This is not your typical cheesy sci-fi death scene either, these are pretty graphic.
I guess you could say he… has a face only a mother could love. YEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!
Another reason you should watch Pitch Black is for the cinematography. For a sci-fi movie made in 2000 this movie has some serious visuals. One of the first things they establish on the alien planet is that one of the suns is blue, which causes the whole desert to have a blue tint. Later, the red sun/planet comes up and then everything has a nice reddish orange hue. Then once night falls they have to rely on green flares and blue glow tubes to light their way, so you hit nearly every cool color filter in the spectrum. In addition to that we also are treated to Riddick-Vision and Alien-Vision, which both are quite unique, especially considering when the film was made. This keeps the desert they are trapped on from getting stale and boring, plus it allows for some pretty bitchin’ scenes.
Including this scene, which just looks like a Blue Man Group routine.
Most sci-fi movies from the late 90’s/early 00’s tend to not hold up today. Pitch Black is not one of them, as it still entertains massively. You get the ultra-badass Vin Diesel character mixed in with gruesome deaths, alien murder beasts, and constantly changing visuals. I cannot think of anything more that you would need to consider a movie worth your time. Next week I will take a look at this film’s sequel, The Chronicles Of Riddick so make sure you at least watch Pitch Black by then. I would also like to thank this awesome chick for giving me a platform to bounce ideas off of as I watched the film at 1am.
Oh, I almost forgot! Fans of the Gears Of War video game series might notice that the kryll are heavily inspired by the alien creatures in Pitch Black, and I think that is pretty damn cool.
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