There has not been a truly great science fiction film made since “Bladerunner.” Oh, there have been plenty of entertaining romps, thrill-a-minute action/adventures and even better-than-average horror flicks combined with the science-fiction genre as a backdrop.

But every time a new science-fiction movie comes out, you can rest assured that it could just as easily have been described without referring to science fiction at all. You rarely see a pure science-fiction movie these days. If it’s not a comedy, it’s a horror film or an action/adventure.

“Pitch Black” is just such a film. It follows in the same tradition of “fearing the unknown” established in the ’50s that was brought to full fruition by “Alien.” It is 90 percent horror film while the other 10 percent is split haphazardly between action and science fiction.

The story is fairly conventional. A spaceship crash-lands on a desert planet with three suns. The survivors are led by docking pilot, Fry (Radha Mitchell), and a cop named Johns (Cole Hauser).

Johns is transporting a convicted killer named Riddick (Vin Diesel), who gets lost and becomes nearly as big a threat as the lack of water and scorching heat.

The group finds an abandoned scientific outpost that solves their water problem but leads to a much bigger problem. The desert planet bathed in constant sunlight is going to experience an eclipse soon, and with the night will come a killer horde of bat-like creatures. Sound familiar?

The similarity to “Aliens” is more than superficial. You can count the similarities on both hands.

The precocious, cute child; the overwhelming horde of alien predators; the desert planet; the prisoner with the heart of gold; the gorgeous, strong female lead; and the religious element. This isn’t just deja vu, this is fairly unoriginal writing as far as the basic idea goes.

With that said, “Pitch Black” is still an entertaining sci-fi/action/horror flick.

It does a better than average job of presenting us with characters who are compelling and interesting to watch.

This kind of movie doesn’t usually go in for themes beyond the theme of killing as many threatening aliens as possible.

But throughout the film, director David Twohy tries to show us that under tremendous pressure, we find that we are not who we thought we were. Horror brings out the best and worst in all of us.

A coward might find himself to be brave, and a convicted murderer could be the difference between life and death.

After her ship is struck by a meteor, Fry ejects frozen passengers from her ship.

It is a bizarre sight to see and leads us to make assumptions about her character that are later challenged.

The differences we see in each character are as stark as night and day, and this film is carried out visually as well.

The movie had a reported budget of $25 million.

This is considered shoestring by today’s standards, and Twohy and his special effects team should give themselves a good, hard slap on the back for doing quite a lot with it.

Not normally “all about the F/X,” this reviewer is more impressed when they are decent, used to advance the plot and not the center of attention for the whole film.

Long effects sequences that exist for no other reason than to titillate an audience with shiny objects and big explosions are nothing more than mind candy for the mentally challenged.

The greatest science-fiction movies of all time, the cult classics that endure, are inevitably plot- and character-driven. “Star Wars” is the exception.

A great deal can be done with little to no effects. “A Boy and his Dog,” “Soylent Green” and “Silent Running” were all great without using the crutch of special effects.

Any science-fiction movie that relies more on its story than its spectacle deserves some attention.

So if for no other reason than to support a move in the right direction, “Pitch Black” deserves at least one viewing.

There isn’t much to warrant a “Holy Trilogy” style competition for multiple viewing here, but once is entertaining enough to warrant the cost of a ticket.

3 stars

Rating based on a 5 star scale

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Greg Jerrett is a graduate student in English from Council Bluffs.