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I wanna complain about The Chronicles of Riddick some...

Arnox

Master
Staff member
Founder
Messages
5,285
Remember Pitch Black? It was a great, if pretty straightforward movie; what I call, "industrial" sci-fi with mercs, convicts, immigrants, and a bit of Aliens thrown in to spice things up. Some of the scenes in it did feel a bit contrived, but it succeeded in doing what it wanted to do. So for the sequel, we'd get some more of that, right? Maybe no aliens this time, but there's many other elements of sci-fi they could throw in. "Hahaha... No." says writer and director David Twohy.*

Now this is all not to say that Chronicles of Riddick doesn't have anything going for it, but compared to Pitch Black, it was a serious letdown and a pretty large departure from the themes of the original. And the biggest problem with it is definitely the shoehorning in of a bunch of fantasy elements and tropes. Riddick is suddenly the foretold chosen one with hidden mystical powers. And he's destined to kill the big bad necromancer who killed his family and his town and his dog and...



Thankfully, CoR doesn't try to do this fantasy shtick throughout its entire runtime. Blessedly, there's a large chunk of the movie (Crematoria) where it drops all this nonsense and focuses on being the hardcore gritty industrial sci-fi movie it should have been. It's just a shame that it didn't last for longer because it definitely is, far and away, the best part of this movie. At the end of the day though, my question is, why did the series' key writer and director feel like all this fantasy was a good idea for Riddick? It makes no sense. If I had to guess, it's well known that Vin Diesel is a big fantasy nerd, so all this stuff may have been his choice to put in. If so, then fine, but I'm sorry. It doesn't make it any less of a bad decision.

My verdict? Play Escape from Butcher Bay instead.

Oh wait, that's STILL not available digitally. Great...

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* OK, he didn't actually actually say this, but he may as well have.
 

gaijinkaiju

Lord Inquisitor
Sanctuary legend
Sanctuary contributor
Messages
612
I kinda liked both, but it has been a very long time since I last saw either though.
 
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