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Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2004 12:12 pm
by mbilderback
This movie really pissed me off. I had such high expectations after Pitch Black. What's with this supernatural leader taking a force across the galaxy, nuking everything in his path to get to some supernatural underverse? WTF?! It seems to me that they could have really capitalized on Pitch Black's cult popularity without going to such funky ass extremes. Anyway, lots of good action but they still didn't develop the universe as much as I expected or wanted. Technology level was still somewhat undefined and their smattering of wierd races randomly was....annoying. Overall, however, the acting was good and the combat was better. In the beginning, it seems the director did a bit of dumbass shaking of the camera during Bad-Ass Riddick scenes, but that abated with time and in the end, the fights were well done.
In the end: 6 out of 10 stars.
Good acting. Good casting.
Bad plot, what was someone thinking?! shrug.gif
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2004 4:25 pm
by Paul
I've seen Pitch Black a bunch of times. It had a realistic feel, sort of like the Alien movies. The tone was dark, the technology was believable, and the aliens didn't require any justification. It was a "sh!t happens, deal!" movie.
I was excited when I heard that they were making three more Riddick movies.
Then I saw the previews for The Chronicles of Riddick. They showed some evil leader with a metal helmet that had faces on it. Suddenly I viewed it as Pitch Black II: The Quickening. I assumed they BF'd the series.
I'm still curious to see it, but I'm afraid I may be setting myself up for another outing with the date-raping polar bear of disappointment.
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2004 4:52 pm
by mbilderback
Paul wrote:I'm still curious to see it, but I'm afraid I may be setting myself up for another outing with the date-raping polar bear of disappointment.
:glare: That about summs it up.
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2004 5:11 pm
by TPRJones
I pretty well hated Pitch Black. I gave it -1 out of 10 stars, and didn't see any redeeming qualities at all apart from the interesting character of Riddick.
I'll have Chronicles of Riddick in my mailbox tomorrow courtesy of Netflix, so it'll be interesting to see if my feelings on it are as strongly opposite of y'alls as they are on it's predecessor.
EDIT - Hey, nevermind, it's a different DVD. "The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury", an animation that takes up where Pitch Black leaves off. I'll let you know how it is.
It did seem awful early for the actual movie to be hitting DVD. 
Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2004 6:09 am
by mbilderback
TPRJones wrote:I pretty well hated Pitch Black. I gave it -1 out of 10 stars, and didn't see any redeeming qualities at all apart from the interesting character of Riddick.
I'll have Chronicles of Riddick in my mailbox tomorrow courtesy of Netflix, so it'll be interesting to see if my feelings on it are as strongly opposite of y'alls as they are on it's predecessor.
EDIT - Hey, nevermind, it's a different DVD. "The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury", an animation that takes up where Pitch Black leaves off. I'll let you know how it is.
It did seem awful early for the actual movie to be hitting DVD.
Didn't know they made an animated sequel...anyway, Pitch Black tended to be one of those movies you could like or really hate. I liked it, but I can see how many would hate it.
Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2004 9:04 am
by Paul
The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury
Here's a trailer for Dark Fury.
It's like when Lort of the Rings came out in theatres. Companies started selling the cartoon version.
I didn't know they made a cartoon version of Return of the King until recently.
I saw a Van Helsing cartoon DVD the other day as well.
Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2004 1:00 am
by Leisher
The Riddick and Helsing cartoons are different than the Rings cartoons. They're prequels. Its a little something Hollywood is trying to sell more DVDs and to help build franchises.
Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2004 9:25 pm
by TPRJones
It's 30 minutes long. The character animation is in the Aeon Flux style. It doesn't have much of a story, really, nor does it particularly advance characterization or anything like that.
Eh, it's probably worth seeing if you really like the series, but don't expect too much from it.
Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2004 12:01 pm
by mbilderback
30 min cartoon !> movie rental fee + hassle.
I doubt even I'll rent it, and I'm a fan of Riddick.
Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 2:48 pm
by 71-1085092892
Finally saw it, think I liked it.
OK... Toombs, the bounty hunter that was trailing Riddick through most of the movie, was introduced in the Dark Fury cartoon DVD.
Dark Fury was excellent, in case I haven't mentioned it elsewhere.
I could appreciate what the director was trying to do in this movie... he was trying to make it huge. Did it work? Mostly, I think. I liked the sky being full of tracers as the bad guys were incoming. Seemed realistic. Much better planet invasion than the Naboo invasion in Star Wars: Ep 1. You know, when the entire invasion was a single platoon of droids in the street before the palace.
There was a ton of Dune similarities... a religious Jihad through the universe, for one. For those of you who didn't read the Dune books, when Paul Atrades takes Arrakis, he launches a Jihad that takes hundreds, or thousand of worlds... to convert or destroy. This was what the Necromongers were doing. They were just sincere enough about it to be convincing... I never got the impression they were faking their religion. They had their scriptures and their prophesies and the means to achieve their goals.
There was also enough... alienness in it to be convincing. Cakedaddy has mentioned this somewhere before. Not everything is going to seem (slightly-removed-from) human. Those modifies "lenser" critters come to mind. Weird, but you can kind of see how it would happen.
The main strength of the first movie that there were no stereotypes in the characterization. Nobody was wholly good or bad.
This movie strayed away from that, slightly. Toombs was just a bounty hunter, and fairly one dimensional. He was the most striking example, to me, but none of the other characters, in my opinion, seemed as "real" as in the first movie.
Riddick himself remained an enigma... relating to wild animals in one scene, sipping hot tea in the next. Going for max body count one minute, weeping over a young (and hot...) girl the next. Not too bad... not too bad.
I liked the Conan-esque... King by his own hand... ending. I hope they run with it in another movie.
Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2004 12:06 am
by TPRJones
I loved it.
Apparently some of the more integral bits to establishing the backstory of the Necromongers didn't make it into the theatrical version because movie company executives are fucking morons, so I should specify that I loved the Director's Cut DVD version. That rocked.
8 out of 10 stars, easy.
I'm not sure what I think of the ending, though. I can't imagine where that would go next.
Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2004 12:49 pm
by GORDON
I've had the unrated director's cut sitting on my desk since the day it was released. I'm trying to motivate my wife to watch it with me... but she hated Pitch Black. I've just about convinced her that Dark Fury and Chronicles are very different... so maybe this weekend.
Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2004 1:00 pm
by TPRJones
If it helps, I also hated Pitch Black (a lot), but loved Chronicles of Riddick. (See my first post above)
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 12:46 pm
by mbilderback
MTV showed Dark Fury recently. Finally got to see the whole thing. Not bad...not worth a rental + hassles though, too damn short.
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 1:41 pm
by GORDON
Would be cool to see more cartoon Chronicles episodes for a season on HBO (or something) leading up to the next movie.
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 3:59 pm
by mbilderback
GORDON wrote:Would be cool to see more cartoon Chronicles episodes for a season on HBO (or something) leading up to the next movie.
Zang.
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 4:55 pm
by GORDON
mbilderback wrote:GORDON wrote:Would be cool to see more cartoon Chronicles episodes for a season on HBO (or something) leading up to the next movie.
Zang.
Chinese-excellent-Wayne's World 2?
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 5:09 pm
by mbilderback
GORDON wrote:mbilderback wrote:GORDON wrote:Would be cool to see more cartoon Chronicles episodes for a season on HBO (or something) leading up to the next movie.
Zang.
Chinese-excellent-Wayne's World 2?
Give the man a cigar, Mr. Ex President.
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 5:38 pm
by GORDON
Then that was a good quote.
Bilderback++
Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 1:25 pm
by Leisher
Finally saw Chronicles and I didn't like it.
Sure the action was great and Riddick being an interesting character was entertaining, but overall I think they really lost the focus of the series.
It should be noted that I've seen Pitch Black and enjoyed it. I totally understand how some people didn't, but to me it represented a single day in the life of Riddick.
I also played all the way through Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher's Bay. This was the prequel to Pitch Black and really developed Riddick, Johns, and their relationship. Interestingly, Johns became a very cool character in this storyline and actually created disappointment about his death and characterization in Pitch Black. I guarantee you that if they knew Pitch Black would be big, Johns would have survived. By the way, COR:EFBB is the BEST Riddick story out there.
Finally, I saw the cartoon Dark Fury.
All that set me up for a huge disappointment with Chronicles of Riddick. What were the writers smoking?
The whole necromongers storyline was pointless and a distraction. I believe it was an excuse to give the storyline an "epic" feel, but it came off more like an episode of Stargate.
This series is about Riddick and he should have been the focus not some borg wannabes.
The Chronicles of Riddick was an attempt to mainstream the series and turn it into Star Wars. They should have stuck to characters and slams. The Riddick series is more The Fugitive meets Blade Runner than Star Wars.
If you're a fan of Riddick, do yourself a favor and get The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher's Bay. Its the best thing ever made about the character.