Bullet Points: Pitch Black
Before Vin Diesel drove around in a car with one of those really annoying sounding tailpipes and way before he ever pretended to be a tree, Vinny put on a pair of his cousin’s swimming goggles and killed a bunch of green screen monsters.
Pitch Black saw the debut of the character Riddick, a really bad dude who desperately needs to get better eye insurance. Yeah, he can see in the dark but unless you live in Alaska or work 3rd shift that is absolutely useless. Does that mean he can see the inside of his eyelids when he’s asleep ?
Synopsis: A spaceship crash lands on a planet with 3 suns and no darkness but the dehydration is the least of their worries as the hardened criminal Riddick and the impending eclipse offer the survivors of the crash many new ways to die.
Farscape alum: I never noticed before but Farscape’s Claudia Black is among the survivors of the crashed spaceship. She even brings along some of her attitude from the sci-fi show.
A history of perversion: We get a scene of Riddick straight up creeping on the lady pilot played by Radha Mitchell. Don’t think this is the only time old Richard does this because in the third film in the Riddick series, we find him jerkin’ it (allegedly) while watching that chick from Battlestar Gallactica showers. I hope this is a lesson to all the ladies on the set of the next Guardians movie.
Unworthy Merc: Cole Hauser is cool and all but he never felt badass enough to be the guy to take down Riddick. Just think about it; Riddick takes out an entire army of world conquering fanatics but he couldn’t beat up a 25 year old named Cole. His parents might as well have named him Stacey.
Kudos to you: You gotta give credt to the filmmakers for ending the film the way they did. There aren’t many heroes who are introduced without a love interest or without actually saving the damsel in distress at some point. Riddick is very much the same anti-hero character that was the star of movies like Escape From New York and Mad Max.
The Verdict: He might be the Snake Plissken of the new generation but he isn’t quite as badass in Pitch Black as he would become in later films. I do dig me some Riddick, though. I learned a lot from watching G.I. Joe and X-Men as a kid and one of the most valuable lessons was that killing robots and monsters or shooting lasers instead of bullets is a great way to kill shit without having to show a bunch of blood and guts. When it comes to CGI killing, Riddick is a master.
