CINEMA

Riddick

POSTED BY: WISHIMAY
UPDATED: Sunday, September 29, 2013 23:31
SHORT URL: http://bit.ly/17XyF3Z
VIEWED: 7350
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Monday, September 9, 2013 12:14 AM

WISHIMAY


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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Monday, September 9, 2013 6:06 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


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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Monday, September 9, 2013 6:46 AM

ECGORDON

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.


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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Monday, September 9, 2013 8:22 AM

WISHIMAY


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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Monday, September 9, 2013 2:51 PM

STORYMARK


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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Monday, September 9, 2013 4:59 PM

WISHIMAY


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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Monday, September 9, 2013 5:43 PM

FREMDFIRMA



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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Tuesday, September 10, 2013 6:25 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!



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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Tuesday, September 10, 2013 10:20 PM

GWEK


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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Wednesday, September 11, 2013 12:21 AM

WISHIMAY


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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Wednesday, September 11, 2013 10:21 AM

MUTT999


Saw it. Loved it. Non-stop action, cheesy dialogue, and Katee Sackhoff kicking ass. It's no Pitch Black, but way, way better than Chronicles. I don't buy too many DVD's anymore, but this one is on top of my list when it comes out.


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Wednesday, September 11, 2013 11:07 AM

STORYMARK


Quote:

Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:


It was actually pretty good, I think it was done by the same folk who did Aeon Flux,
-F



Yep, same director/lead designer, at least.

They sell "Riddick Trilogy" DVD sets that include it, but its tough to find as a stand alone anymore.




"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

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Wednesday, September 11, 2013 11:57 AM

NUTLUCK


I thought the movie was ok, no where near as good as Pitch Black but a little better than the second one who's name escapes me at the moment.

As a guy and fan of scifi the biggest reason to go see this if you are not a big riddick die hard fan or just love anything scifi is Katie Stachoff gets topless. For those of you who don't know who that is, she played the part of Starbuck in the recent Battlestar Galactica remake they did.

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Wednesday, September 11, 2013 10:10 PM

GWEK


Quote:

Originally posted by Wishimay:
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.....



Yeah, but to me, "a special hell" was what sealed the deal. There were a ton of less obvious lines before that. In fact, Boss Johns' entire way of speaking is, at times, very 'Verse-y.

Also worth noting: the mercenary shops have tilting engines just like Serenity. Not unique, but another possible connection.

You don't have to agree with me -- we clearly don't agree on RIDDICK to begin with... :)

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Wednesday, September 11, 2013 11:12 PM

WISHIMAY


Yanno, It's funny....Every time I come here and critique a movie as unbiasedly and logically as I can, a few of the people here think I HATE every one of them..... If I wasn't as least vaguely interested I wouldn't have gone and for sure wouldn't have come here to give my opinion. On my scale even saying "rent it" is moderate praise, because I don't rent every movie, and I don't think most do either...I simply try to point out the positives AND the negatives, which I refuse to gloss over just to agree with others. And I gave it a B. It's not like I gave it an F....

It WAS better than "Chronicles", but that really isn't saying much, and I felt it had SOME things in it that were pretty irritating.

Is giving a movie a "B" rating really a fail grade????

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Friday, September 13, 2013 3:22 AM

SHINYGOODGUY


Ok, EC, get out of my mind. Thank you!

My thoughts exactly. The moment I saw the trailer I thought, Pitch Black remake. Not necessarily a bad thing, but, given the lackluster movies of the summer, not worth the risk. I could waste my money on stronger fare.

Chronicles of Riddick was all over the place, but did take off in a totally different direction than Pitch Black. Shame to waste the talents of Dame Dench and Keith David, Thandi Newton although I liked some aspects of the movie - others were off-putting and wrong-headed. I'll wait for the DVD.


SGG

Quote:

Originally posted by ecgordon:
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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Friday, September 13, 2013 3:32 AM

SHINYGOODGUY


To answer your question: B is actually quite good.


SGG

Quote:

Originally posted by Wishimay:
Yanno, It's funny....Every time I come here and critique a movie as unbiasedly and logically as I can, a few of the people here think I HATE every one of them..... If I wasn't as least vaguely interested I wouldn't have gone and for sure wouldn't have come here to give my opinion. On my scale even saying "rent it" is moderate praise, because I don't rent every movie, and I don't think most do either...I simply try to point out the positives AND the negatives, which I refuse to gloss over just to agree with others. And I gave it a B. It's not like I gave it an F....

It WAS better than "Chronicles", but that really isn't saying much, and I felt it had SOME things in it that were pretty irritating.

Is giving a movie a "B" rating really a fail grade????


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Friday, September 13, 2013 3:13 PM

STORYMARK


Quote:

Originally posted by GWEK:


Yeah, but to me, "a special hell" was what sealed the deal. There were a ton of less obvious lines before that. In fact, Boss Johns' entire way of speaking is, at times, very 'Verse-y.

Also worth noting: the mercenary shops have tilting engines just like Serenity. Not unique, but another possible connection.

You don't have to agree with me -- we clearly don't agree on RIDDICK to begin with... :)



Seems like a bit of a reach to me, especially since they talked the same way in Pitch Black - which pre-dates Firefly.

I know that, as fans, we want to see Firefly everywhere, but its kinda hard to justify that one as legit.




"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

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Sunday, September 15, 2013 4:03 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!



Just saw it. I liked it. R rating was clearly meant to be able to bring out the world of Riddick to a targeted audience. The movie had a very graphic novely feel to it, in the lines and the violence. Not sure that's the way I'd have gone w/ it, but it was o.k., for one movie.

As this WAS a direct sequel to Chronicles , it still played heavily to the Pitch Black feel.

One thing which didn't work for me...

Select to view spoiler:


Boss Johns. I'm sorry, but he's just too young to be the father of William Johns, from Pitch Black. 10 years, they said it's been, since he went looking for Riddick. Maybe space travel is suppose to be the spin here, which keeps folks from aging , but the actors who play them are only 3 years apart. Fine actor an all who played Boss, but he's simply too young to be the father of the late William.

Was there something mentioned in the movie which I missed that explained any of that ? I sat there the whole time...



.

I didn't care too much for the ending. A bit contrived, to say the least. Nice that ( hopefully ) we'll see more Riddick in the future, though. I just wish they'd have worked it out some other way. Oh well. Not perfect, but I still enjoyed it.




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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Sunday, September 15, 2013 5:55 PM

WISHIMAY


Yeah, I though that too....Maybe he was in cryosleep and ya don't age in there??? Yeah, grabbing at straws. I think they just didn't want too old a guy playing the part. And I know a couple people had kids reeeal young, so I guess minimal age 55ish. I think he could pass for 50, but some people always look young....Lucky bastards....

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Tuesday, September 17, 2013 12:22 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Ron Perlman , who is probably a bit busy w/ his Sons of Anarchy stuff, would have been a good fit. Born in 1950, he'd be 20 something years older than either of the guys who played the Johns characters ( who were born 3 years a part )

Sure, an actors actual DOB isn't something that's directly tied to the age of the fictional character they're playing, but in such instances of one guy playing another's father, it only makes sense. With make up, or some form of image alteration, that's one thing for a guy to play a different age. Happens all the time. But here... there WAS no such effort to even TRY to make one look all that much older.

Unless I hear from David Twohy himself, this will always bug me a bit.

Always.

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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Sunday, September 29, 2013 10:54 PM

MAL4PREZ


I saw it yesterday. I don't expect the earth to move due to one of these Riddick movies. In fact, beforehand I was wondering why I was going to see it when I am rarely motivated to go to the theater.

The thing I like about Riddick movies is that the alien worlds they present are visually awesome and make some sort of geologic sense. More than that, the details of the world and its solar system are major points in the plot. I like that. There's also something about the costumes and the different societies of people that I enjoy.

Pitch Black definitely did it for me as far as the alien world, though the last quarter of that movie was like someone ran out of budget and ideas and suddenly it sucked. It looked like they were shooting in someone's back yard with a rain machine. The ending was so poor compared to the beginning that I have a hard time calling myself a fan of the movie. (And also they killed the awesome chick from Farscape way too soon boo!)

Chronicles of Riddick I very much enjoyed for the reasons I mention above: interesting alien worlds and the way people make use of and adapt to them. The production value was damned fine all the way through too. I'm surprised to see so much hate of it here.

The newest movie... It has that alien world-ness that I like. Interesting that it had so few other characters. Seemed a brave choice to make it all Riddick and CGI for a loooong intro, but they did it well. I didn't need the whole "curing the lesbian of her lesbian-ness" thing, that was just lame and offensive. I art no lesbian, but it annoys me when a movie tries to rack up manly points by "curing" a lesbian. The anime dog was a little obvious in it's cuteness, and the whole movie felt like the first part of a trilogy that should have been just two movies. I wanted a glimpse of the rest of the verse, more than the 10 seconds or whatever of the beginning.

Overall though, I liked it and will probably see it again. I nitpick here, but must go back to the point that I don't expect a Riddick movie to be a cinema Breaking Bad. It was interesting enough to be worth the ticket price and two hours in a theater.

I don't say that about many movies. Certainly not about Elysium lol!


*---------------------------------------*
The French Revolution would have never happened if Marie Antoinette had just given every peasant an iPhone.

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Sunday, September 29, 2013 11:31 PM

WISHIMAY


Quote:

Originally posted by MAL4PREZ:
I wanted a glimpse of the rest of the verse, more than the 10 seconds or whatever of the beginning.



Agree. I felt kinda shortchanged in that there....

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