Monster Movie of the Week: Independence Day (1996)

INDEPENDENCE DAY (ID4) (1996)
Director: Roland Emmerich
Genre: Sci-Fi/Disaster


THE MOVIE

I learned a valuable lesson from Independence Day. It wasn't that people of all walks of life will come together to confront an insurmountable foe, with only their faith and patriotism to protect them. It wasn't that extraterrestrials have an overarching hatred for national monuments. It wasn't that alien computers are compatible with Mac OS 8 and susceptible to computer viruses.

It was that you should never, ever, trust a cool movie trailer.

I came into Independence Day with very high expectations due a very good trailer that should off some very cool visuals and ID4, promised to be a modern update of an old-school invasion stories like War of the Worlds. The story looked like it had shades of the great 1980's minseries V, which also featured a fleet of massive spaceships parked over Earth's cities.


But writer Dean Devlin and director Roland Emmerich-who were not well known at this point-give the movie a wide scope but almost no depth. Independence Day is not really about anything other than people fighting with spaceships. I like to compare this movie to M. Night Shyamalan's Signs, which is another invasion movie, but instead of being globally focused, Signs tells the story from the point of view of one family living in a rural house. There are only a handful of characters and you actually care about them. The characters of Independence Day are not really worthy of being cared about because they are simply two-dimensional avatars with simple relationships calculated to give the movie "heart," yet it has no heart. At best, the characters are archetypes (Cocky Fighter Pilot, Idealistic Young President, Good-Hearted Stripper) at worst, out and out stereotypes (Old New York Jewish Guy, Big Gay Mama's Boy).

The great visuals and set up are not supported by any ideas. There is no exploration of what it means that we are not alone in the universe. The aliens never reveal their intentions, they simply exist to be antagonists. This movie is science fiction in the most shallow sense. The sci-fi elements only exist to make the kind of big stupid disaster movies that the filmmakers seem to love so much. So Independence Day is a movie with neither heart nor brains.

It should be noted that this is one of Will Smith's breakout performance and the first of his many hit July 4th movies. It's really striking to see just how much he has grown as an actor since ID4. Thankfully, he no longer feels the need to constantly "work it" on camera like he does in this movie. Just look at the wonderfully somber and nuanced performance he gave in I Am Legend a few years back for comparison.



THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

The aliens of ID4 were designed by Patrick Tatopolous, who also worked on Devlin and Emmerich's hated Godzilla movie and are cool if derivative. The exoskeleton is biomechanical and looks a good deal like Giger's Alien, with the addition of a series of tentacles that come out of its back. This armor is apparently vulnerable to being punched in the face. Sadly, we see very little of these guys in the movie and we don't really see how they move around. Do they walk around on the tentacles like Doc Ock? These guys were briefly popular as toys in the '90's.


Inside the exo-suit are little guys that resemble the "grays" that are prevalent in UFO mythology (especially in the 1990's). They are given flared, manta-like heads and iridescent skin and eyes but are otherwise pretty typical aliens. They do resemble the alien from Devlin and Emmerich's previous movie, Stargate, giving some continuity in the Devlin/Emmerich cinematic universe (such as it is).




MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

I will say that there is an interesting detour midway through the movie where the main band of characters end up in Area 51. The movie has some fun working some contemporary UFO mythology into its story in an almost clever way. There is also a very fun cameo from Brent Spiner (Data in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series and movies) as a wild-eyed scientist who looks to have been locked in the facility since the 1960's. This is a great bit of sci-fi casting in what is otherwise an unimaginatively cast movie (Jeff Goldblum as a scientist? Where'd you think of that?)

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

Available on DVD, Bluray, and currently streaming on Netflix.

MINORITY REPORT

Verdict: The gay guy dies first!

So this movie pretty prominently features the pioneering openly gay actor Harvey Firestein in a supporting role. While he never actually says that his character is gay, it not unreasonable to assume it based on his performance and the fact that the character has a stereotypically overbearing mother. So this character that a savvy audience will be lead to assume is "gay" is the first speaking character to die and doesn't get to party with Fresh Prince, Brundlefly, and Lone Starr at the end of the movie.

The message: Diversity is great! We just don't want you around when we rebuild civilization.

SEQUELS

None yet but then Will Smith's career hasn't hit the rocks.

TRAILER

Monster Movie of the Week: The Blob (1988)

THE BLOB (1988)

Director: Chuck Russell

Genre: Horror

THE MOVIE

Thirty years after the release of the classic movie The Blob, writer Frank Darabont (who would later do a series of successful Stephen King adaptations, including The Shawshank Redemption) and director Chuck Russell (who had previously collaborated on A Nightmare on Elm St. III: The Dream Warriors) released this brand new version of the killer slime movie, complete with updated gory effects for a 1980’s audience. Chuck Russell’s remake follows the original movie in the broad strokes, with many characters and situations which correspond to those in its predecessor.

It is again set in a small town—this time a California mountain town that is anxiously awaiting its first snowfall and the upcoming ski season. Kevin Dillon plays Brian—a young trouble maker who-with the exception of his ‘80’s mullet—could have ridden his motorcycle out of any number of ‘50’s youth movies. He even makes it a point to say, “I have a problem with authority.” We get it, Brian. You’re a rebel.

Brian discovers a local hobo who has come in contact with an object that crashed to earth in a fireball. The old man is crazed and his arm has a weird pinkish growth, which he is trying to cut off with a pick axe when we first encounter him. Brian comes across with another young couple on a date and the four go to a local hospital, much as in the original movie. Soon the blob begins feeding on the townspeople, growing larger and larger.

Lady Gaga tries out a new look for the VMAs.

The biggest plot difference in the two movies involves the arrival of a government team to contain the creature and we learn that this version of the blob actually is a government experiment that crashed to earth on a wayward satellite. The government is working to capture the creature alive and is spreading misinformation about a viral outbreak. The townspeople are considered expendable. In the original, the blob was an alien lifeform that crashed to earth on a meteorite and this new origin seems a little unnecessary. After all, if ever there were a believable movie alien, it is the blob.

Stylistically, a lot had happened in the thirty years between the two movies. The 1988 version of The Blob seems to have been informed by such movies as Alien and The Thing and the movie features an impressive level of gore and effects. The remake takes the horrifying idea at the heart of the story—an insatiable shapeless creature that suffocates and consumes its prey—to a more horrifying level. The blob is a great concept and there is a lot more room for development. It has been recently announced that there is yet another remake planned, this one directed by exploitation/horror director Rob Zombie.

He should have asked for them to make his Camarones a la Diabla "menos picante."

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

Another controversial aspect of this remake was in its depiction of the monster, which is often seen forming “blob tentacles” which whip around its victims. Some blob fundamentalists have said that this is out of character for the creature and that it should always remain amorphous and incapable of forming appendages. This version of the blob is reminiscent of the monster from John Carpenter’s The Thing, which in its base form is also able to form simple appendages and orifices.

One thing that the movie does very well is show how the blob feeds and how it leaves its victims. There are lots of great shots of partially digested people floating around inside the creature. This blob is able to cleanly strip the flesh from people’s bones and seems to have a set of consistent and believable biological processes.

Kevin Dillon, after winning the "Sigourney Weaver from Alien look-a-like contest."

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT

Like the first version of The Blob, the 1988 version has a scene set in a movie theater where people are watching a horror movie. The remake builds a little more suspense and has some more fun with the idea. First the blob creeps into the projection booth through the AC vent and kills the projectionist. Soon, we see the image on the screen begin to distort as the blob presumably works its way into and around the projector. Then the screen goes pink as the light shines through the semi-translucent monster. It’s a very cool sequence.

DVD AVAILABILITY

Available and on Netflix.

SEQUELS

None.

THE TRAILER

A Brief History of Quetzalcoatl as a Monster

The Mexican hero/god Quetzalcoatl has a long and complicated legacy in the history and mythology of Mesoamerica but a surprisingly short one in global popular culture. Over the centuries, he has appeared in many forms and gone by many names, all some variation on "Feathered Serpent" and the worship of a plumed snake god goes back thousands of years and is one of the constants that run through most of the cultures of the region. However, unlike characters from Greco-Roman, Norse, or even Egyptian mythology, Quetzalcoatl hasn't really made his way onto the pop-cultural landscape in a big way. That said, the Feathered Serpent has made a few interesting appearances over the years, and his monstrous interpretation in City of the Gods: The Return of Quetzalcoatl is far from the first time he has appeared in a modern sci-fi or horror context.



Quetzalcoatl as a monster is kind of a no-brainer. The fact that it hasn't really appeared much in movies and television is more a tribute to Hollywood's laziness and cultural myopia than anything else. A "feathered serpent" pretty much guarantees you a cool monster and one does not have to search far to find hundreds of interesting and monstrous visual representations of the god in Mexico alone. Even a brief read into his histories reveals several rich back stories heavy with tragedy and story potential. A handful of movies and TV shows have made use of the character over the years with mixed success and never in any real depth.

From The Flying Serpent. Quetzalcoatl makes a gravity-assisted kill.

An interesting early appearance is in the 1946 film, The Flying Serpent, if only because monster films were few and far between in the '40's. In this film, a demented archeologist discovers Quetzalcoatl, the "Killer Aztec Bird God," and discovers that he can sic the monster on his enemies by planting the creature's feathers on them. The ensuing horror leads his daughter to make the historically obtuse comment, "I wish there was no such thing as an Aztec Indian!" The small, turkey-like creature in this movie leaves a whole lot to be desired and the monster usually travels by zipping down a clearly visible line at its enemies.

From Star Trek: The Animated Series

Amazingly, Quetzalcoatl managed to escape the 1960's without appearing in a Japanese-style giant monster movie despite being so very kaiju-friendly. Mexico did not go in the direction of other countries like Korea, England, Italy, and jump on the '60's giant monster bandwagon. It's a sad thing that we didn't get to see lucha libre wrestlers in rubber costumes duking it out in a miniature Mexico City set. The Feathered Serpent did, however, appear in an episode of the animated Star Trek series.

He made his next and to-date greatest movie appearance in the 1980 horror film Q: The Winged Serpent, which avoided the difficult issue of people having to say, "ket-zal-ko-atul" when they were in line to buy their movie tickets. Q is a schlocky but fun exercise in horror exploitation and features a winged-serpent (not feathered) that has made its nest in a Manhattan skyscraper. This version of Quetzalcoatl was beholden to wild-eyed Aztec cultists. The monster in this movie is a little disappointing and has none of the Mesoamerican pizazz you would expect from the character. This Quetzalcoatl doesn't even have feathers but instead leathery reptilian wings.




Decades later, in the wake of the disappointing American Godzilla movie, there was a rather good animated spin off series that managed to capture the feel of old-school Japanese Godzilla movies. It pit the spawn of the American Godzilla (now with Atomic breath and a more appropriate attitude) against a stable of new giant monsters. One of which was a spin on Quetzalcoatl. In the "Bird of Paradise" episode, Quetzalcoatl was nesting in a Central American volcano and was appropriately feathered, although red. At the very least, this incarnation of the monster brought it tangentially into the Godzilla universe and is the character's first honest-to-goodness appearance as a genuine kaiju.

Finally, in 2008, we have the SyFy movie, The Lost Treasure of the Grand Canyon, which is all kinds of bad. It is not bad in the mind-bogglingly self-aware sort of bad like Sharktopus or Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus; it's just regular bad. In this period movie, archeologists discover a lost Aztec city in the Grand Canyon (!), guarded by, you guessed it, Quetzalcoatl. This version of the monster is vaguely avian, vaguely reptilian and vaguely mid-1990's-CGI looking. Again, kind of monochromatic with no feathers.



In handling the character in City of the Gods, my goal was to reconcile the major mythic and historical interpretations of Quetzalcoatl into one character. I wanted to tell a kick-ass giant monster story, but also to make use of the hero's deep and often tragic history. While mythology is very hot right now in movies, books, TV, and video games (seriously God of War, Percy Jackson, Clash of the Titans, Thor and many more on the way) usually this is drawn from the Greek or Roman tradition. With City of the Gods, I really wanted to deal with a characters and situations that have been overlooked by pop culture. Hopefully you'll find it to be a fun and satisfying sci-fi romp but also one that does justice to this great character from world mythology.



Patrick Garone
www.patrickgarone.com
twitter.com/patrickgarone
facebook.com/cityofthegodsnovel

Monster Movie of the Week: Sssssss! (1973)

Sssssss! (1973)
Director: Bernard Kowalski
Genre: Body Horror


THE MOVIE

Can I just say that this movie has the best title of all time? I want to get that out of the way right at the beginning. I'm a sucker for onomatopoeia in horror movie titles. But there is more than just 1970's camp value in Sssssss! The first scene alone is genuinely horrifying, with two men carrying a casket-sized box up from a spooky basement and there is clearly something alive and struggling inside but you don't find out what it is until later in the movie. It's really a great and unsettling scene. Plus I think the guy who sold Richard Crenna's family the Devil Dog is the head carnie. Gross.

Much of the movie is a slow burn, as the mad herpetologist, Dr. Stoner, slowly transforms his new lab assistant, David, into a serpentine monster. Dr. Stoner is a kooky old guy who likes to get drunk with his pet snake. He and his majestically bespectacled daughter live in a an old house far outside town. Much of the house is devoted to a research lab in which Stoner keeps dozens of live snakes, frequently "milking" them for venom.

David is played by Dirk Benedict, who would later go to play Face in The A-Team and Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica. His most recent work consists of making strangely hostile and sexist comments about the re-imagined Galactica series. Here, he plays one of the most effete and passive heroes I have ever seen in a horror movie (well, until A Nightmare on Elm St. 2). He eventually hooks up with Dr. Stoner's daughter and the two have a nerdy romance. Sssssss! almost feels like a prototype of David Cronenberg's The Fly but without the great tragedy of that movie.



THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS

Sssssss! is not a particularly effects-heavy movie. Over the course of the movie we see David slowly transform into a more reptilian creature through make-up effects by John Chambers who worked on Planet of the Apes. We also get a glimpse of the fate of Dr. Stoner's first lab assistant, briefly glimpsed in the film's opening. We see the snake man in an old-fashioned carnival freak show, in one of the film's creepier moments.



What is somewhat disappointing is that the final form that David takes is not some snake/human hybrid but an actual Cobra. He literally turns into a Cobra like any one that you would see in the zoo. This is done through a pretty awful stop motion/cross fade/proto-morph effect. It kind of sucks that after sitting through the whole movie, he just turns into a big snake. In fact, some of the later phases of his transformation are much more visually interesting than his final form.


MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT

The movie's creepy opening sequence, which manages to evoke a much different kind of almost Gothic horror than the light sci-fi tone which the movie eventually settles on.

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

On DVD and currently streaming on Netflix.

TRAILER

Monster Movie of the Week: Yonggary (1967)

YONGGARY: MONSTER FROM THE DEEP (1967)

Director: Kim Ki-duk

Genre: Kaiju

THE MOVIE

Long before The Host and Dragon Wars, South Korea had its very own giant monster, Yonggary. Much like Gamera and Gorgo, Yonggary is a pretty blatant Godzilla ripoff, that tells the story of a giant reptilian creature awakened by an atomic bomb and which goes on a spree of destruction in a major urban city. In this case, Seoul gets all the kaiju love.

While it is a little retro for the time in the fact that Yonggary has no monster opponent, there is the obligatory Kenny character. Kennys are characters in 1960’s and 1970’s Japanese kaiju movies who are always annoying little Japanese school boys in short shorts. Some of them have serious emotional problems. Yonggary’s resident Kenny, is an insufferably precocious smart alec who engages Yonggary in a kind of horrible dance off. Yes, you read that right. The two get down together to some ‘60’s surf pop.

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

Yonggary is a big dinosaur, much like Godzilla. His claim to fame is that he has a big glowing horn on his nose. The monster suit is actually pretty awful and cheap-looking with big, glassy eyes. He also breathes fire, which looks suspiciously like a lighter being held in front of an aerosol can.

As a creature, Yonggary has a couple of notable attributes. First is the nose horn, which glows at different points in the movie for unknown reasons. Second, is Yonggary’s behavior. Interestingly, the creature is seen actively devouring oil during the course of the movie. It’s actually rare in a kaiju movie to see a monster actually eating anything (other than the occasional person). Yonggary’s need to drink oil gives him an interesting motivation and suggests an intriguing biology.

This movie also makes me appreciate the craft that went into building the miniature cities and environments in the Godzilla movies. One can really see the difference in quality between the work here and in the earlier Japanese movies. The miniatures really do go a long way to making the rest of the effects work as well as they do and selling the scale of the whole thing.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

The dance off! But only because it sucks so hard.

SEQUELS

None, but a loose remake in 1999.

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

On DVD, as streaming on Netflix as of this writing.

Monster Movie of the Week: The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

When TV first became popular and affordable for most people, the medium was seen as a serious threat to the motion picture industry. There was a time when, if you wanted entertainment, you went to the movies. And that was it. In the 1950's, TV offered people the option of being able to consume prepackaged entertainment in their own home. Why go out to the movie theater when you could watch TV at home? Movie studios began concocting different schemes to get people out to their cinemas, by offering experiences that could not be replicated on TV, thus 3D was born as a desperate attempt to lure people to their local movie theaters. Some things never change.

The Creature from the Black Lagoon was a standout monster movie from this "Golden Age of 3D" and introduced audiences to one of the most iconic movie creatures of all time, Gill Man. The creature also spun off into two sequels, and a truly staggering amount of tie-in merchandise. Gill Man is also a junior member of that elite club known as the Universal Monsters, which is sort of a monster Rat Pack.

The movie is also notable for its extensive use of underwater photography, which was far from common in 1954. The Creature from the Black Lagoon spends a surprising amount of time underwater. Gill Man is also the forefather of the numerous fish man creatures that have appeared in movies and TV over the subsequent years, such as Abe Sapien from Hellboy and Mer-Man from the Masters of the Universe franchise.




The Creature from the Black Lagoon is inspired by a legendary South American fish-man creature. The producers decided to build a horror movie around this creature set in an Amazonian research station. The science team encroaches on the Gill Man's lair and are picked off one by one. Unlike many '50's movie monsters, the creature is presented in a fairly sympathetic way and there is a definite environmental message buried in The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Like many horror movies, The Creature has a beauty and the beast theme running through it. Gill Man takes a liking to one of the scientist's girl friend. One of the most memorable and even erotic moments occurs during an extended scene in which she goes for a swim with the creature swimming below her in the murky water, apparently enjoying her silhouette.



THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

Gill Man is realized through a couple of different rubber suits, which are actually very photogenic. When I watch this movie, the phrase "Glorious black and white" comes to mind and the suit looks really great on film. I've seen images of the creature in color and he usually looks pretty awful, with rubbery dark green skin and often bright red lips. In the movie, though, he looks great. The creature even manages to look realistic in the movie's many underwater shots, in which Gill Man's various fins and flaps move in a fluid and natural way.

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT

Gill Man's synchronized swim with his would-be girl friend is a great moment. The kind of of lyrical, visually poetic moment is rare in genre movies like this.

SEQUELS

Revenge of the Creature (1955) , The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)

There has been a lot of talk about a remake of this movie and one is tentatively schedule for next year.

TRAILER

Monster Movie of the Week: Clash of the Titans (2010)

CLASH OF THE TITANS (2010)

Director: Louis Leterrier

Genre: Mythological Adventure

THE MOVIE

Y’all remember the magic early summer of 2010? It was a time of classic movies like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Shrek Forever After. One of those great summer of ’10 movies was Clash of the Titans, a Greek mythological opus starring Sam Worthington, who is quickly becoming the go-to guy for action genre movies. In all fairness, Clash is kind of a mess. Rumor has it, that the movie was severely meddled-with in post production and that there is a longer, better cut of the movie out there somewhere. This seems to be an ongoing problem for French director Louis LeTerrier, who's pretty-good Incredible Hulk suffered from a troubled production as well.

One thing is for sure, mythology is the new vampires! Movies like Clash of the Titans, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, and the upcoming movies Thor, God of War, and The Immortals show that Hollywood is once again turning to the classic stories of gods and heroes in search of the next big hit. Mythology hasn’t been this hot for millennia.

Clash of the Titans is also a loose remake of a cheesy ‘80’s movie of the same name, although here re-imagined as a summer CGI bonanza with a cast of heavyweight actors in supporting roles. Interestingly, the movie reunites Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes, who last memorably starred opposite each other in Schindler’s List and here play the divine siblings Zeus and Hades. Pete Postlethwaite and Danny Huston also have smaller parts in the movie.

Clash is loosely based on the story of Perseus, the Greek hero tasked with defeating Medusa and saving the maiden Andromeda from Poseidon’s sea monster. Like many Hollywood movies based on Greek mythology, the story takes a lot of liberties with characters and story points. Like most of these movies, Hades is made into the story’s villain and his realm is depicted as fiery and Hellish, where as it was usually depicted in mythology as sort of dark, dull and dreary.

Another annoying convention of movies set in antiquity is to cast British actors, as though people speaking ancient Greek are best represented by crisp English accents. It’s even more illogical and inconsistent in this movie because of Liam Neeson’s Irish brogue and the distractingly Australian Sam Worthington, aka Krakendile Dundee. Seriously dude, learn some more accents. Russell Crowe can do it, so can you.

This movie is also notable for two other reasons: It introduced a hilarious new catchphrase into the public lexicon, “Release the Kraken!” which is applicable for lots of different situations involving sex or pooping. Secondly, Clash of the Titans illustrated the limits of using 3D conversions as a quick cash grab to charge more for tickets. While Clash was not filmed or conceived for 3D, it was apparently given a fast and cheap conversion to the format and the movie’s 3D was widely panned. Clash of the Titans helped usher in a backlash against 3D movies that snowballed over the summer of 2010 and has gone a long way towards undoing Avatar’s hard work in showcasing the power of 3D. Ironically, Worthington starred in both movies. No doubt, James Cameron will give him a good kick in the ass when they start filming Avatar 2.

Haven't I seen you somewhere before? Was it Return of the King? Pan's Labyrinth?

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

The Greek myths were filled with cool creatures and Clash of the Titans does not stint on monsters. There are some very cool giant scorpions that grow out of the blood of a cursed warrior. There is the Medusa, which is well designed and has a unique and interesting way of moving, but suffers from very subpar CGI. There’s even a Pegasus for the ladies. The real star of the show, is the Kracken which looks a bit like a cross between the Rancor from Return of the Jedi, Orga from Godzilla 2000, and an octopus. The Kraken is a colossal kaiju-sized monster with a toothy, gaping maw and lots of horrible tentacles. This is one of the great movie monsters but sadly is not around very long before being dispatched. Every once in a while I see a monster in a movie and I’m like “That needs to fight Godzilla!” That’s how I felt when I saw the Kraken. It’s a great improvement over the silly looking monster from the original Clash of the Titans which looked like a four armed version of the creature from 20,000,000 Miles to Earth.

Speaking of movie trends, I think Krakens are coming back in. After all, we just had a Kraken not too long ago in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Prior to that, I don’t remember seeing a lot of Krakens, except maybe the tentacle monster in Deep Rising. I would keep my eye on Krakens. I think they are going to be big.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

“Release the Kraken!!”

G'day! Name's Peh-seus.

SEQUELS

Surprisingly, considering the largely negative reactions to the movie, a sequel is planned.

HOVE VIDEO AVAILABILITY

Available on DVD and Bluray.

Kraken: Released.

TRIVIA

The movie carries the misnomer from the original. There are actually no Titans in this movie, as the term “Titan” refers to the generation of gods before Zeus and his siblings. A more accurate title would be “Clash of the Olympians.”

Class dismissed.

TRAILER

Monster Movie of the Week: Pitch Black (2000)

PITCH BLACK (2000)

Genre: Sci-Fi/Action

Director: David Twohy

THE MOVIE

Pitch Black owes a lot to the James Cameron movies and Arnold Schwarzenegger movies of the 1980’s such as Aliens and Predator. Much like the classic Schwarzenegger flicks it is a vehicle for its star, Vin Diesel, and was one of the muscled actor’s first breakout roles. It also has a hard sci-fi edge that characterized many of the action films of the ‘80’s. Creature design is handled here by the very competent Patrick Tsatopolous-who is hated by fanboys for his work on the American Godzilla movie but a decent creature designer in his own right. Pitch Black is also the start of a series of movies and multimedia projects featuring Diesel’s character Riddick and was followed with the spectacularly nerdy and self-important The Chronicles of Riddick as well as an anime movie and a well-received Xbox game, and an upcoming theatrical sequel. Pitch Black is the only entry to actually heavily feature monsters.

Pitch Black is a story of survival in which a cargo/passenger ship en route to the “Tangiers” system is struck by a meteor shower and goes down on an uninhabited desert planet. There's already a lot going on here and you can see that there is an extensive and convoluted back story, which thankfully is left for the sequel to explore. The ship is also carrying prisoner Richard Riddick and his bounty hunter captor. After the crash, Riddick escapes into the desert but the survivors have other problems to worry about in the form of carnivorous hammer-headed creatures called Bio-raptors. The good news is that the creatures are solely nocturnal and cannot survive in the light of the planet’s three suns. The bad news is that the ship crashed prior to the planet’s once-every-twenty-two-years eclipse cycle. The few remaining survivors team up with Riddick-who has a bad attitude and practically has the word “Anti-hero” tattooed across his giant pectoral muscles so you never forget: HE’S NOT A GOOD GUY-and try to escape the creatures.

At the end Riddick learns the true meaning of Christmas.

Pitch Black is a decent creature feature, with good special effects and a stylish presentation. The special lighting and filtering effects to convey the other worldliness of this tri-solar desert planet are particularly cool. Diesel is a good action hero and a worthy successor to the Stallones and Schwarzeneggers of yesteryear but he needs to learn to control his nerdy indulgences. David Twohy is a talented writer director who has a real eye for visionary and vaguely gothic sci-fi and horror. He had previously done the very cool sci-fi film The Arrival and was one of the dozens of writers to have worked on Alien 3 and Waterworld and the well-received thriller A Simple Getaway.

THE CREATURES/EFFECTS

These “Bio-raptors” are distant cousins of Giger’s Alien, but that’s okay; about a third of movie monsters from the last 30 years are as well. Patrick Tatopolous gives a unique twist to what could have been a total Alien clone, with some truly bizarre looking creatures with weird crescent-shaped heads and hammerhead protrusions on either side of their faces. The effects and design are all good if a little too slick for my tastes.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE:



To be fair, its a pretty flat movie.

SEQUELS

The Chronicles of Riddick 2004

HOME VIDEO

Widely available.

SEE ALSO

Aliens 1986

TRAILER