It's another 'monsters kill group of humans one by one' show. It's executed a little better than most of them, but it can't escape the basic premise. The only difference is that light hurts these creatures, but they're on a planet that has a long eclipse with no light at all. With a better script and a few more worthwhile innovations in addition to some cool cinematography and total darkness moments, this could have been a really cool flick. As it is, it's the Vin Diesel show.

He's a burly badass murderer that this crew was hauling to prison before they crashed on this desert planet. He escapes and creeps everyone out until they realize there are nasties here that are even more scary. They band together, alliances switch and shift a bit and, miraculously, they don't kill off Keith David immediately, who's the rich man's Avery Brooks simply because he can deliver lines like he's not trying to impress his English teacher with his pronunciation skills. Still, David's part is limited to little more than potential fodder and the holy man that Diesel can spout off 'where's your god now' cracks to.

It's all Diesel that makes this worth watching. He's got that voice and that confidence that give him the requisite charisma to swallow another "Alien" offshoot. He's not perfect, but he's the best thing here, and it winds up being a decent film as a result.