PITCH BLACK (2000)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*

Twenty-four years after its debut, PITCH BLACK is still a very serviceable "survival-drama," and that's to the credit of director/co-writer David Twohy and co-writers Ken and Jim Wheat. The latter two are credited with the original story, but they don't seem to have been directly involved in later continuations of the "Riddick franchise." Many of their earlier screenwriting credits were sequels to earlier concepts, so it's ironic, though not unexpected, that they apparenty weren't to keep control of their own idea. But then, the movie PITCH BLACK wasn't as significant for launching the fairly minor space-hero Riddick than for propelling thirty-something actor Vin Diesel into "name above the title" status.

In a spacefaring future, a transport ship is struck by meteoroids and disabled. Its pilots are forced to make a crash landing on a desolate planetoid, where they're able to breathe the atmosphere. That's about the survivors' only piece of good fortune, for the planet is a desert seemingly devoid of other life, kept in perpetual daylight by three suns. One organic life-form hides beneath the ground, a swarm of manta-like monsters that pick off survivors when they get the chance. The survivors make their way to an abandoned geological station, whose scientists were apparently slain by the creatures. The survivors have a chance to escape by fixing up the geologists' ship, but they also learn of a ticking clock: that when the suns eclipse, the multitudinous mantas will come forth and devour them all if they can't get away first.

The outward menace of the planet and its monsters, though, didn't make the movie a sleeper hit. Though most of the survivors are either pilot-personnel like Carolyn (Radha Mitchell) or ordinary passengers, two of the survivors are opposed to one another: an alleged cop, Johns (Cole Hauser) and his prisoner, a murderer named Riddick (Diesel). This dangerous individual gets loose during the crash landing, but Carolyn begins to wonder if Riddick or his captor are the greater danger. The writers somewhat tip their hand as to Riddick's potential heroism when they have one passenger, a girl-masquerading-as-a-boy named Jack (Rhianna Griffith), express admiration for the strange, powerful fugitive. Once the script suggests that "the crook" Riddick may be the more appealing figure, there are no surprises when he assumes a quasi-leadership figure and kills the corrupt Johns (actually a bounty hunter, not a cop).

Though Griffith and Keith David (playing a practical-minded Muslim holy man) add spice to the drama, BLACK's main sociological myth is that of "altruism vs. self-interest." Riddick initially seems to be the incarnation of the latter, while Carolyn-- a junior officer thrust into the default position of ship's captain-- represents the former. However, Carolyn's position of altruism evolves from guilt over an act of self-preservation. As for Riddick-- is he truly outside the sphere of human influence as he seems to be?

The original film has a strong emotional dynamic, but the "pick-off-survivors" trope requires the sacrifice of some of the characters necessary to the dynamic. A major script-weakness is also the contrived nature of the predators. If they're carnivorous-- and even able to assimiliate alien humanoid flesh-- what do they live on, when human beings don't happen to land on their isolated world? 

I don't think the next two iterations of the Riddick saga manage to compensate for losing at least one of the major characters who does not escape the desert planet. But Diesel's charisma makes even the future failures bearable.