Riddick
POSTED BY: Wishimay
UPDATED: Monday, September 30, 2013 09:31
VIEWED: 8682
PAGE 1 of 3
Hmmm, well if you haven't heard- yeah, they pretty much just remade Pitch Black to some extent. The first part I will give them credit for running down the jist of the other two movies in like five sentences so it started out with a brisk jog at least. And if you like survival films, the first half isn't too bad, I was kinda sad when I found out others were coming and then, boy, did I wish they hadn't. The only one of any consequence to the plot is Cole Hauser's dad (the guy who was addicted to morphine in the first movie) who just conveniently happened to be in the neighborhood ( and guess what he wanted to know...)with his mercs.... and then another dork who had his own rag tag crew and spoke Spanish-French-Creole???? I mean... who knows WHAT the hell he was saying because every other word was horribly garbled. Relieved to see him die (It's ok, they made sure he was the slave trading jerk character of the universe before they bumped him off 
). There was also a lesbian chick and I'm still not really sure WHAT her job was or why she was there, if anything just to be a fluffer, and flirt with Riddick and she reminded me of the chick from the first movie (which I guess they are trying to say Riddick can even turn a gay girl straight.)
Lots of posturing, reflective eyeball shots, extreme survival moments that make you go "ouch" and about 1000 usages of the word "fuck" later he gets off planet and goes to find Furya. So no, they didn't even finish ANYTHING here, and left room for another movie...
I actually kinda enjoyed Pitch Black, but Riddick is just a weigh station, stuck between what I'm sure is a waaay more interesting story if he can ever keep from being lost on these stupid ass planets for five minutes...I mean seriously, can't you have a ship on auto-pilot waiting nearby EVER???!!!! I did actually enjoy the strategies he employed in taking out the mercs and it mostly kept my attention, so I guess I will give Riddick a plain "B", and if you aren't that much a fan you might wanna tack on a "-" to that. Not horrible, but definitely room for improvement....
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I wasn't sure we'd ever get to see another Riddick movie, so I guess fans should be grateful for this much.
Been a weak summer for movies, imo, and Riddick is about the only thing I've half wanted to see.
Maybe during the week, when I get a chance.
Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen
Resident USA Freedom Fundie
" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall
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I had been thinking of checking it out. I liked Pitch Black and recently re-watched it, maybe even liking it more the second time. It's a fairly tight, suspenseful, and at times even an unpredictable film. But essentially a horror story more than it is SF, sort of like a low-rent Alien movie.
Until last night I had never seen The Chronicles of Riddick. IMO, they went in entirely the wrong direction with that movie, overloading it with too much CGI and an esoteric death-cult empire that didn't make much sense. They went from a low-rent Alien vibe to a high budget Dune wannabe. And even though I like Alexa Davalos, I don't think she was the right actress to play Jack/Kyra.
The trailers for Riddick seemed to indicate they were getting back closer to the original, and from your report and as I suspected, maybe too close. I may eventually see it, but probably won't bother while it is in theaters now.
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Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
Until last night I had never seen The Chronicles of Riddick. IMO, they went in entirely the wrong direction with that movie, overloading it with too much CGI and an esoteric death-cult empire that didn't make much sense. They went from a low-rent Alien vibe to a high budget Dune wannabe. And even though I like Alexa Davalos, I don't think she was the right actress to play Jack/Kyra.
Agree with that completely.
If you are bored and have one of those reduced theaters, it's a good time killer, but would make a better rental... with closed captioning on maybe...
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I enjoyed it. Its definitely a throwback to Pitch Black, but also has a bit of the larger 'verse they were trying to build with Chronicles.
I don't know where you'd get that the majority of reviews are bad - Id say "mixed" is more accurate, given that it sits at 60% positive right now (and closer to 80% positive for audience reaction). I also don't think the comparison to Serenity is all that apt (other than the release window). It opened to almost twice as much, and for an R rated release (which typically do less business), that's not bad. The last one made more overseas than domestic, as well (whereas Serenity made only half as much in foreign tickets).
And ranting about studio movies in regards to this is kinda silly. This was anything but. Disel owns the character now (he traded in some of his Fast & Furious salary to get the rights), and he and the Director put this together on their own. Whatever one thinks of the final product, this was a passion project for them - Twohy and Disel really love that character.
If anyone has even the slightest interest in the character - go, its worth watching. And the only way more Sci-Fi gets made is if they see people buying tickets.
"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"
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Hubby wanted me to defend the lesbian chick's honor "But... SHE WAS THE SNIPER! And she punched that dude....What does it take to impress you??"
More'n that, I guess... 
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Point of interest: there's an animated tie-in what happens between Pitch Black and Chronicles called Dark Fury.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Riddick:_Dark_Fury
It was actually pretty good, I think it was done by the same folk who did Aeon Flux, but not sure - another very large chunk of the story comes from the games, which should (I hope) eventually get released as a standalone DVD cause what about folks who didn't play them ?
One of the most memorable characters for me was Toombs (and yes, he's in Dark Fury) cause he's just sooo over the top obnoxious, he's actually funny.
-F
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He should have taken the money.
Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen
Resident USA Freedom Fundie
" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall
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Just got back from seeing RIDDICK. I liked it; I didn't love it. (For the record, I thought PITCH BLACK was awesome and CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, although it had bright spots, like Toombs and the Imam, was a total mis-step).
This movie feels much more like PITCH BLACK, and although they definitely reference CHRONICLES, this could *almost* be a direct sequel. There is much about this movie that's familiar (even derivative), but I found it to be "comfortable" rather than annoying.
I think they make a mis-step by changing his environment. In PITCH BLACK, Riddick is an animal, a predator, a survivor. Arguably, the same holds true here, but in PITCH BLACK, he's juxtaposed against civilized folk, whereas here, everyone he meets is scum, so a lot of his uniqueness is lost. It's sorta like how Wolverine stands out in the X-Men, but when he's hanging out with Deadpool and the Blob, he's just one of the guys.
I'm a little surprised that no one has mentioned a certain... Firefly-ness to the movie. Although I've always felt the Riddick saga has a similar "texture" to the 'Verse (and, really, couldn't you see Jayne and Toombs hanging out together?), there are a number of dialogue bits that recall the cadence and language of our little world (there's even a variation of a "special hell").
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Quote:
Originally posted by GWEK:
I'm a little surprised that no one has mentioned a certain... Firefly-ness to the movie. Although I've always felt the Riddick saga has a similar "texture" to the 'Verse (and, really, couldn't you see Jayne and Toombs hanging out together?), there are a number of dialogue bits that recall the cadence and language of our little world (there's even a variation of a "special hell").
Yeah I thought that, but we see Firefly in everything Spacey and Jaunty
I just immediately dismissed it as a mirage, hah.For what it's worth the words "special hell" are in and have been used in almost every article comment section where someone does something unconscionable for YEARS, and I still don't know if that should be attributed specifically to Firefly, but I have a feeling that was out there before it was used by Joss.....
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