As I continue watching as much of Karl Urban's work as I can, and with the new Riddick movie coming out in September I rewatched the Chronicles of Riddick the other night. First off I'm a fan of Pitch Black, where Riddick is from, it's a great sci-fi/horror movie, lots of suspense and twists and Vin Diesel is just amazing in it. I did have a Vin Diesel kick for a while, but that was around XXX and it didn't last long after that. I still think Vin Diesel is a good actor when he's given good work, however he does make bad decisions when he's given control, case in point, Chronicles of Riddick. Vin Diesel had more say it what went on with this squeal and he used it to try and bring some fantasy to a world that had great sci-fi elements that could have been somewhat plausible. Some of the things that made Pitch Black great was the fact that we were just given a little taste of a universe with enough of our own elements in there to make it seem familiar. There was a Muslim 'teacher' with three young boys on their way to New Mecca. We don't know what happened to the old Mecca, but we know that every Muslim is supposed to make a trip to Mecca in their lifetime. There's no politics in Pitch Black, there's a criminal who's being returned to prison, but he has something that they need on that planet, eyes that can see in the dark. As the movie goes on though you do find that Riddick is not only someone quite scary, but also very smart with his own code. It's a really good movie. Moving on to Chronicles of Riddick however you find that maybe we should have left Riddick well enough alone.
Chronicles of Riddick starts with him on the run from Mercenaries, again. This time it's his friend from the first movie looking for him because there is an invading army of Necromancers on their way. A group of people who live somewhere between life and death, at least that's what I gather here. In this movie we learn that Riddick is a Furion, so he's not even human. Now when Riddick was a baby there was a solider in the Necromancer army who saw a fortune-teller who told him a Furion would kill him so he started killing all the Furion male babies by warping their umbilical cord around their neck, which is one of the few things we learn about Riddick in the first movie that he was left in a trash can with his impilical cord wrapped around his neck. Now that solider is in charge of the Necromongers, thinking everything's ok. He comes to Hellion Prime where the 'holy man', as Riddick calls him, is living with his family. So Riddick is on Hellion Prime when the Necromongers invade, this is where we meet Vaako, who is a commander in the Nercomonger army. He's got the worst haircut I've ever seen! Ok maybe not the worst, but it's pretty bad. I bet Karl Urban walked around wearing hats every time they called cut, it's pretty bad. I wouldn't be surprised if a stipulation of him reprising his role in the new Riddick movie was that he doesn't have to have that hair cut again. And here's where I half leave off plot and just talk about the costumes and other random stuff I don't get about this movie. Are there any humans in this universe? Cause Riddick is a Furion, Judy Dench is in this movie, which I'm still wonder how they got her to do it, as an Elemental, and the Necromongers were all 'something else' so is everyone else human? Or are they other things? For that matter what the hell is a Furion? I mean he has eyes that he can see in the dark, that he claims he paid a doctor for, and he's been killing and evading capture and escaping from places for a long time, which would explain all the skills he's developed over the years. So what makes him different from humans? Is it just where he's from? And Vaako's wife, what is up with her? Is there no way for a woman on her own to rise to power, so she has to do it through him? And clearly Vaako is a sexual submissive to her, there's no other way that relationship works. And how come she's the only one wearing gold on that ship/palace thing with four heads that they fly around in. I mean could they make it more obvious that she's power hunger? And what the hell are the quasi-dead? The movie leaves with way more questions than it ever did answer.
I think if there had been a better script and it wasn't attached to Riddick, like if it was a movie on it's own, it might have done ok. But with it being added to the universe that was established so eloquently in Pitch Black, it just does't work at all. So far the trailers for the new Riddick movie look good, back to hunting for Riddick. Vaako is back, but he hasn't been in any of the trailers I've seen so far, so I'm unsure in what capacity he's back and weather that hair will make a reappearance. The more simple the plot the better for this franchise, just have to wait and see.
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