Quick Look: Pitch Black (2000)

This is nice little action movie that I was initially a little weary of my first viewing, but with the subsequent movies and video games, Pitch Black, also known as The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black (that came after the sequels were released) is a film worth checking out.
The basic story goes like this: a space flight carrying a group of passengers gets 'interrupted' by a meteor strike.  The ship crash lands on an unknown planet, with multiple casualties.  Several people are still alive, including a very dangerous criminal named Riddick (Vin Diesel); the bounty hunter bringing him in named Johns (Cole Hauser); a crew memeber named Fry (Radha Mitchell); a holy man (Keith David); a kid named Jack; plus several other various people.  
Riddick quickly escapes after the crash, and the group is tense as Johns has explained that Riddick is a killer.  Searching the area for water and shelter, the group comes upon an old settlement that seems to have been abandoned years ago.  One of the party is killed, and the group quickly blames Riddick - but the audience sees that it was not him.  He is recaptured and the initial thought is to kill him, but cooler heads prevail and the greater danger is discovered.  There are lizard-like, flying aliens hiding underground on this planet that are carnivorous, and ready to eat all of the remaining characters.  The good news is that the will not come out into the sunlight and that a small spaceship has been discovered at the settlement, so there may be a way to escape.  The bad news is that a long eclipse is quickly approaching and that will spell certain doom for the humans, unless they can get the spaceship up and running.  The body count rises, and the lines between good guy and bad guy are very fuzzy throughout this film, and obviously with the sequels, Riddick is one of the survivors.
On my first viewing, I was initially somewhat negative about this film because the alien creatures looked like a cross between a hammerhead shark and the aliens from the 'Alien' franchise, and I did not find it very imaginative.  However, the special effects - highlighted by Riddick's "in the dark vision", as well as the creatures "point of view" camera shots are entertaining, and create a fun watching experience, plus the images and set work of this barren desert-like planet were done very well.  The story is basic, but works in enough action to keep the pace moving, and the characters are not completely predictable.  Hauser and Diesel were both very good characters in this movie, and make it worth a look in and of itself.  I was happily surprised with the ending, and sets up the future films well.
 I recommend the DVD/ Blu-Ray, it has a good amount of extras that feed into the Riddick mythology, plus a few extra minutes of footage.  'R'/unrated versions are for language, and violence.
The sequels are: The Chronicles Riddick: Dark Fury (an animated short film), and The Chronicles of Riddick, both were out in 2004.  Another Chronicles of Riddick movie is supposed to be coming out in 2013.