The topic of Riddick

[Lightbringer]

I liked the riddick charicter when i first saw pitchblack way back when. I liked him because he was kind of a sci-fi rehash of one of my favorite charicters in any medium Conan the barbarian.

Conan/Riddick are kind of anti-heros, they have their own agenda, their own code so to speak, and they dont have any problems doing things in an unorthadox manner. That being said I will say I think that Pitchblack was ten times the movie that Chronicles of Riddick was. Thats not to say that CoR wasn't worth a theatrical viewing, Im guessing it would be much better in the theater as it would be a rental. What im saying is this is an example of letting big budget make your movie instead of charicter development and storyline. Yes it had some interesting special effects, and i would love to own a negromonger rifle, but ......... wow, was it lacking.

Its like the 3rd and 4rth batman movies. Their budget went up, and here we have the ruination of a gritty world. Pitchblack was cool because of its lack of budget, it gave the movie a very realistic feel (along with some very inovative camera work). CoR lost its gritty edge and became a polished hollywood plot graveyard (imo).

Things i didn't like about the new movie where the unrealistic fighting scenes. [spoiler] Such as backbreaking rider of rohan, and the Riddick Kira/Jak Xena strap twirl of doom, the only person who should have had any type of special powers was of coarse the leader of the Necromongers and thats just because he went to a wierd part of the universe and came back messed up. [/spoiler]

The other thing was again the lack of charicter development and dialog. There was no explanation for most things, and i can see where over explaining would slow the movie down, but they opted for none at all. That was a mistake, they just basically gave the audience a blank script and said draw your own conclusion. Thats not a plot tactic, thats laziness on part of the writer / director / producers/ and anyone else involved.

I am glad however that this charicter is getting his own franchise. After I watched pitchblack I thought to myself how cool it would be to see some more movies or read some books or something.

In case anybody dosn't know they are extending it further with the game on the x-box( ) CoR: Escape from Butcher Bay, and an anime (yes anime) CoR: Darkfury wich takes place directly after the happenings of Pitchblack.

Anyway i'll drop it here and leave it to discussion if in fact there are any Riddick fans out there.

[Technomancer]

Out of curiosity for those who have read them, how do the movies stack up against the original novels?

PS. Pitch Black was great flick

[Ashley]

I didn't know if there were any original novels, but now that I do I plan on tracking them down.

First off, Pitch Black, which I saw only a few weeks ago, scared the crap out of me. But that's just because I'm a big baby about horror movies and too easily scared. But I loved the story, and I loved the way the directors worked with such interesting, edgy, new camera angles. They found ways to tell a story interestingly without a huge budget. I guess I kinda agree with Aaron--CoR wasn't horrid, but it just lacked a lot of the appeal of the first one. It was too slow in areas for me and way too shallow storywise. And the ending...[spoiler]way too loose![/spoiler] I am actually kinda upset that they went and ruined a series that had so much potential in the same way they have so many other ones--the first movie was good let's add some pizzazz to a bajillion sequels and screw the storyline.

I am slightly interested to see the Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury anime series coming soon, even if I don't really like the art style too much.

[Lightbringer]

I have recently seen Chronicles of Riddick: Darkfury. I cannot say that I was very impressed. Mainly because of terrible(imo) charicter designs, and some scenes of entirely bad animation , like the begining of the final fight.

I dont know what they where going for really in this. They said it was to tie the two movies Pitchblack and CoR together, but it seemed as hastily thrown together as the newer starwars movies. Didn't have the same feel. Evan if it was supost to be a different genra, they should have kept a dark feel to it. And in some places they did.

[spoiler] the cryo pods where a good touch, mercs on one side, the bountys on the other, that had a darker and more realist feel i liked that. But the ship itself didn't fit very well, and neither did the monsters that where only partially organic. Like metal is a naturally ocureing part of biology(no blood jokes) [/spoiler]

but the rest of the movie was to bright or had a totally different type of tech. All in all its worth a rental if you are really into Riddick, but evan then you'll be disipointed. plus its only 35 minutes and lame extras on the dvd