Escape to the Movies: Riddick

[SomebodyNowhere]

I got back from Riddick and it was for the most part pretty decent, but I could be bias due to actually enjoying the rest of the Riddick efforts including Chronicles and Dark Fury. Just seeing the character get another chance to succeed regardless of how unlikely that might be is nice.

Didn't Vin Diesel once say Pitch Black would be The Hobbit to Chronicles of Riddick?

...

Yeah, nice try, Vin.

During the promotion of Chronicles, when Lord of the Rings was in full swing of success, Universal tried to use the idea of Chronicles becoming an epic level story like Rings. Personally I liked the movie and would have seen it almost regardless of how they promoted it, but going that route was an incredibly bad plan by the promotions department.

 

[Darth_Payn]

WAIT???? Bob is giving Transformers 4 a MAYBE????

REALLY?

I would have excepted "Double NO" but a MAYBE?

Really Bob? Really?

It's telling that Bob is more interested in another Transformers movie than the Robocop remake.

 

[Devin Barker]

After Transformers 3... 4 is not a maybe... its not even a could be... its a no

 

[QtheMuse]

If by 'harmless fantasy' you mean: 'something that not only bellitles the life choices of a group of people who still face extreme persecution in parts of the world, but makes their sexuality seem like something that can be fucked out,' it is indeed a 'harmless fantasy.'

Everyone faces different types of persecution in different parts of the world. I have had sex with women who claimed they were lesbian and then they said they were bisexual. I guess I am a horrible man.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

I'll say that if you liked Pitch Black then you'll like this movie as well more so if you're familiar with Pitch Black.

The problem with that logic is that Riddick, who wasn't the protagonist in the movie, was a deeply ambiguous character. You didn't know until the very end what he would be willing to do - or even what he'd WANT to do - in that situation. That was the main source of tension within the movie.

Two movies later, do you think they'd be able to recreate that? I haven't seen "Riddick" and probably won't, but I don't hold out much hope. And it's not as though MovieBob has given it a stunning recommendation to convince me otherwise.

 

[themilo504]

I?m probably wrong but chronicles of Riddick sounds kind of awesome in a so bad its good way.

You know I?m curious or anybody ever did the fuck you straight trope with inverted genders, and if so did people complain about that.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

The problem with the Chronicles was that they took a character who was an interesting supporting character, turned him into the sole focus of a film and then constructed this overly elaborate and unnecessary world around him, with seemingly no respect for what Pitch Black had accomplished.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Also; Yes, the new Robocop looks very very bad. Why are they trying so hard to make him look like Batman?

Oh good Lord, THAT was Robocop?!

 

[Starik20X6]

What I took away from this review is that Bautista seems like he'll be good in Guardians of the Galaxy.

 

[Farther than stars]

So essentially this film's approach to sex can be summarized as both misogynistic AND homophobic. Yeah... like I needed more of a reason NOT to go and see this.
Also, stone-faced meat golem would be a really cool band name. I just needed to say that.

 

[Mahoshonen]

Movie is about what I expected but I disagree with the preamble. Pitch Black was actually really well received by those of its rather niche demographic at the time. There was a lot of love for that character and that role is actually what put Diesel into the limelight. F&F was far more commercially successful but that just elevated him to "future star".

So I don't think its right to say it would have been dismissed if not for his surging fame. It would be exactly what it is anyway, a cult flick. The problem with the sequel was just that it was a dumb movie.

Speaking of the credits, was that supposed to be Robocop or Kryptonian power armor from Man Of Steel 2?

Robocop

Fffffff....I was too young to remember the movies completely and I'm still pissed!

 

[BrotherRool]

I actual liked Chronicles of Riddick a lot, it's sad to hear all the world building is gone

 

[Zen Bard]

"Pitch Black" was a character driven story with Riddick being the most interesting due to his moral ambiguity and enigmatic background. In that context, he was a cool anti-hero...almost along the lines of "The Man with No Name".

"Chronicles" become a world-building story, which in an of itself wasn't a bad thing. In fact they had a lot of cool ideas that were left unexplored.

But I think they went a bit too grand with the whole thing. A movie like "Dredd" showed how one could still create a world without showing it to you all at once.

And all this seemed to water-down the things that were appealing about Riddick. He could have moved through the world and still been an enigmatic loner instead of the Messianic figure he became.

But that's just my two cents. And I'll be wanting change back...

 

[Nimcha]

I actually really liked Chronicles. And maybe I'll see this one too, a little homophobia never stopped me from watching a movie

 

[LordLundar]

WAIT???? Bob is giving Transformers 4 a MAYBE????

REALLY?

I would have excepted "Double NO" but a MAYBE?

Really Bob? Really?

The concept that time travel is going to be involved as the reason for the Dinobots got his interest.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

Also; Yes, the new Robocop looks very very bad. Why are they trying so hard to make him look like Batman?

Oh good Lord, THAT was Robocop?!

Yeah, it's pretty bad looking. For one, he doesn't look like he's part[sub](or rather mostly)[/sub] robot. He just looks like he's in a suit.

Also; Yes, the new Robocop looks very very bad. Why are they trying so hard to make him look like Batman?

Is THAT what that was? I thought it was a new powered-armor dude advertising Iron Man 4. From that perspective, it's pretty neat, but Robocop? yeah, no.

As for Transformers 4, well... let's just say I'm not getting my hopes up. The Dinobots were easily my favorite transformers (esp. Slag. yay firebreatheing, laser-faced triceratops! with a flaming sword!), but they weren't really that interesting from a plot perspective: just stand-ins for Optimus Prime as the one who shows up and wins the fight for the good guys simply by being badass. Of course the comics gave them... well, gave Grimlock some more character development than that; I'd be curious to see the angle Bayformers takes on it. The point is, at this point it feels more like pandering than any sort of artistic choice, and I haven't seen any sort of respect paid to the potential of the franchise from the existing series.

At any rate, I look forward to seeing the newly designed Dinobots toys. I haven't had a new robot dinosaur on my desk in awhile.

Why doesn't Bay just have the movie be on Cybertron?
A robotic planet, covered in a race of robots that can turn into almost anything, and are all fighting!

Think of all the explosions he could do! You'd think he'd jump at the chance.
He could even have them turn into all those guns he seems to like so much!

Spoiler: Megatron gun!

 

[RTR]

Holy shit I remember reading Island of the Blue Dolphins in elementary school.

 

[Don Reba]

Correcting for Bob's jock hate, I get the feeling that this just might be a decent movie.

 

[Yuuki]

I'd still recommend Chronicles of Riddick as a worthy candidate for Movie Defense Force. It wasn't an oscar-winner, but for me it was a fun ride with some nice action scenes, a big universe, interesting sets (especially the prison planet, easily the highlight of the movie), etc. The one-liners were a tad annoying and the whole "wooo badass is badass" thing was way too over-played, but it was still watchable and ended on a pretty decent cliffhanger:

Spoiler

Riddick slays Lord Marshal (with Kyra's help) and is therefore automatically the new Necromonger leader due to their "you keep what you kill" rule, but at the cost of Kyra's death. Commander Vaako and Dame Vaako are furious, left with no choice but to bow down to Riddick.

...so when Bob tells me that the new movie has no explanation of what happened after Chronicles, I'm a little pissed. Sorry but...WHAT? An entire evil galactic empire with gigantic fleets of ships and magic-powered technology wasn't a big enough deal to continue with? What the fuck did Riddick do after the last movie, just grab a ship and fly away with the entire empire's attention on him?

You know what, screw spoilers, I'm going to dig up the plot of Riddick and see if it's even worth my time.

 

[Jennacide]

The tragedy of Riddick is that I'm not entirely sure Vin gets why fans liked Riddick in Pitch Black. Riddick was great in Pitch Black, and subsequently the animated sequel and Escape From Butcher Bay game, because you never fully understood what was going on in his head. One moment you swear he's gonna gut the survivors in Pitch Black as bait, next he's trying desperately to save their dumb asses. And then you have his unusual attachment with Jack. Riddick's character had a bit of that "generic badass" machismo, but he had an endearing unpredictablity to him that felt like he was an actual person with motivations, not a "meat golem" as Bob called him.

I really wanted this to be good, because Chronicles was pretty damn stupid, but I still like the idea of Riddick from Pitch Black and Butcher Bay. Why couldn't we just get a movie based on Butcher Bay or Dark Athena?