Pitch Black - a podcast by Chris, Sean, Jeremy | Force Fed Sci-Fi

We enter Vin Diesel's Riddick sci-fi movie franchise this week by reviewing and discussing the film Pitch Black. Along the way we will take a look at the Pitch Black movie cast, review some of the cheesy and funny Pitch Black movie quotes, and finally give our own Pitch Black review and rating. So shave your head and don those goggles (hopefully you really don't do that), and strap in for a ride.
Pitch Black Movie Cast and DirectorDavid Twohy - Director

Photo by Gage SkidmoreWhile Pitch Black has gained cult status and Twohy wrote the screenplay for the critically acclaimed film The Fugitive, there really hasn't been much other success with his films whether it be directorial or writer. With that being said, overall Twohy did a nice job with this film, but we'll get into our compliments a bit more with our review and rating at the end.

Vin Diesel as Richard B. RiddickDon't think anyone really refers to the character as Richard, but Vin Diesel's portrayal of Riddick definitely reached a point of popularity with this film, especially among sci-fi movie fans. The character of Riddick in this movie introduces himself as someone along the lines of an anti-hero, we think, it's a bit hard to describe, which is one reason we think audiences enjoy this film.

The arc of his character is definitely intriguing as the audience is introduced to him as a killer and former prisoner, but when he begins to work together with the stranded crew in the movie to try to survive the hungry aliens, Riddick towards the end shows a tiny amount of heroism. Instead of leaving the remaining survivors behind as he was about to do at the final scenes, he has a change of heart - something that isn't evident at the beginning of the movie. While Vin Diesel is a well-known household name, let's take a dive into his acting career for a second.

Has he been typecast as a tough and growling character in Hollywood? Really his career consists of his portrayal in the Fast and Furious franchise, this series with the Riddick franchise, voicing Groot within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (don't know if that really deserves a credit since he records"I am Groot"a bunch of times), and maybe known for playing Xander Cage in two of the XXX films (they really aren't that good). No judgement though, as he is an extremely successful actor and seems to be well-liked.

Radha Mitchell as Carolyn FryReally, another great character this film includes Mitchell's Carolyn Fry. Towards the beginning of the film she is the pilot of the spaceship that crash-lands on the planet and almost ejects the cargo that holds passengers to save herself and one other crew member, Owens, but he stops her. This is the exact opposite of how she feels at the end of the movie as she tells Riddick she would sacrifice herself for the survivors who are trying to get off of the planet.

Cole Hauser as William JohnsWhile Riddick and Fry have a more interesting character evolution throughout the film, Hauser is not what he turns out to be at the beginning either. Dressed and acting like a law enforcer, he turns out to be a bounty hunter. His selfishness in order to survive finally drives Riddick to lead him to his death eventually. We discussed in the podcast episode that Hauser is a bit typecast as well as he often ends up in an antagonist role, but he does a great job with those types of characters.

Keith David as Abu (Muslim preacher)Lewis Fitz-Gerald as Paris Ogilvie

Claudia Black as Sharon"Shazza"Montgomery
Pitch Black Creatures/AliensThe name of the Pitch Black creatures, aliens, animals ... whatever you want to call them, isn't given in the film. However, they are labeled as'raptors'for some odd reason that we couldn't figure out. In any case, as the planet goes into a'pitch black'eclipse (see what we did there), these ruthless creatures raid the surface of the planet the stranded passengers have landed on.

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