Pitch Black

With no aspirations to be a franchise, this is a very effective low budget sci-fi thriller. Twohy makes very clever use of his budget, through cinematography that helps to sell the otherworldly environment and a concept that allows him to hide the primitive CGI used for the creature effects. After a great opening crash landing, Twohy gradually builds up the tension to the inevitable eclipse and whilst most of the cast are essentially there to be picked off one by one, the three core central characters are interesting and developed well and unpredictable with a very effective moment of redemption and closure at the end. It is easy to see why more films were made as Riddick is the standout character, but both Radha Mitchell and Cole Hauser make an impact too. There are some great tense moments in the darkness and clever use of limited Iighting.

This movie started out decent. Some people crash-landed on a strange planet and have to discover both the mysteries of the planet and the mysteries of their partners. This leads to some exciting moments, either by unexpected characters or unexpected alien behaviour. Unfortunately, halfway through the movie, everything gets explained. Now you know who the bad guys are, and what's wrong with the alien planet. Because of this, the tension is gone and the movie ends in a very slow pace, where you can already predict most of what's going to happen. Too bad.. Can't really recommend this, because it's nothing special. The build-up of the story is nice, Riddick is an interesting character (although you don't learn too much about him), the acting is okay, unfortunately it turns into a very generic movie halfway. It did make me curious about the sequel though, so it must have done something right.