*** Official THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Lars_J]

Jason Birzer, you might want to fix your spoiler tag there... I had guessed as much from other reviews, but others will want to be surprised.

There is a "Preview" button - Use it well...

 

[Jason Borchers]

.

 

[Kachi Khatri]

Pitch Black worked for me as well, It was a nifty piece of sci-fi flick I enjoyed.

I'm not so sure about this one yet...have to wait for a general consensus.

Kachi.

 

[Quentin]

There's no way on earth this film is anywhere near as bad as "Battlefield Earth". Twohy is better than that by a mile.

But, this film is still pretty bad. I shouldn't say "bad" so much as "totally flat".

Twohy overreached here, and it shows. The biggest problems:

Riddick is a badass. I get it. Now, get this, Twohy: A flawed protagonist who grows during the course of your film (or at least learns a little something) is much more compelling than a guy who is never in danger of anything.

Waaaaaaay too much exposition and not enough guts. Gimme something to care about over something to learn about.

A LOT of CGI. Too much.

Poorly directed/edited action sequences. This is the one that gets me. Twohy is better than this. Did he have a bad 2nd unit man? What's up? The action is completely un-compelling and hard to watch.

And, lastly - this is a middle chapter???!!! There's not even an ending! What the heck? Too bad...because it makes a bad movie worse, and I'm willing to bet we'll never see part 3.

 

[Jordan_E]

I'll probably catch this tomorrow, but a question: what's with all the swinging on cables? That alone, with it's Van Helsing echo, almost made me not see this when I saw Riddick go Tarzan in the trailer. Is that the new "action cool" of the moment, or something?

 

[Dean Martin]

I think there is only one real 'swinging' moment. He does some other 'rope' tricks but I think that goes back to him in Pitch Black being able to dislocate his arms and manuever himself out of captivity.
This movie wants to show off more of his acrobatic skills.

 

[David Lawson]

$10.6 million on opening day, which should translate to an opening weekend much larger than I would have guessed. I'm going to shoot for a matinee tomorrow afternoon so that I won't flush too much good money down the toilet.

 

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now designated the Official Discussion Thread for "The Chronicles of Riddick" please, post all comments, links to outside reviews, film and box office discussion items to this thread.

All HTF member film reviews of "The Chronicles of Riddick" should be posted to the Official Review Thread.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.


Crawdaddy

 

[Vickie_M]

My credibility is shot because I liked Van Helsing (it's a guilty pleasure), but I liked this too. I suppose it's a guilty pleasure too. I liked Pitch Black so I was looking forward to this. It didn't disappoint me.

I'm not going to read any of the bad reviews (including Scott's) because I don't care about them. I liked it. I liked the character of Riddick. I liked the character of Tyra. I liked the special effects. I liked the visualization of the worlds. I liked Judi Dench.

I hope this does well because I want to see more in the series.

 

[Andy Sheets]

I thought it was okay. It was disorienting at first because no matter how much you see ahead of time, it's quite jarring to see these characters from Pitch Black suddenly going from gritty modestly budgeted horror to high budgeted space opera; it's like a really surly version of Flash Gordon. It was basically well made but it felt incomplete. There's all this stuff happening but I don't feel like a real theme was developed, like they're waiting for the sequels to do that, and that worries me because I have doubts that the movie will do well enough to get the rest of the trilogy made.

 

[Diallo B]

i really enjoyed this. it is not even in the same universe as battlefield earth.

yes it is flawed but the movie has balls. i am not sure why they wanted to stay with a pg 13 rating. from what i have seen lately an r rating does not really deter any money making.

i already knew that regardless of the movie's merits is was going to get lambasted. take, for instance, our resident critic, mr. weinberg's, review



diesel gets little respect from critics. but i enjoy him as an actor anyway.

i hope that they make the sequels. i would love to see where they go with the ending.

 

[Kyle McKnight]

I didn't go into this expecting the "next big thing"....especially after seeing Pitch Black, where there were aliens, now it's Riddick against a "human" race....but I gotta say I enjoyed it. $6 wasn't wasted from me. Yes, it was pretty predictable, but fun to watch.

At first I kept thinking of Stargate SG-1. Necromongers = Goa'uld, there were the small "zat guns"....but still, I recommend any sci-fi fan giving it a chance.

 

[Todd Terwilliger]

I saw this last night. I enjoyed it but it is very flawed. I thought they went crazy with the quick cutting during some of the fight sequences -- too much. This is one of those films that is fun -- I can appreciate what is on the screen and what Twohy was shooting for even if he comes up short.

 

[TheLongshot]

Sorry if my spoiler tag was screwed up. I almost never screw up like that. It looks like the mods fixed it. Sorry for all those who were spoiled. :b

I certainly won't argue that the movie is flawed, and that feels more like a first part rather than a complete movie. Still, it still has me interested...

Jason

 

[Scott Weinberg]

How very curious that you chose to excise the passage that came right before, the passage in which I say some rather flattering things about Mark Vincent.

Ah well. Seems I'm in the minority on the HTF Riddick Ranch, so I become the one to knock. Enjoy.

---

Chuck, your review was quite solid. Despite my own opinion of the thing, I'm glad you enjoyed the movie!

 

[Diallo B]

mr weinberg,

my apologies if it seems as though i was choosing soundbytes. that was not my intent. my intent was to point out that the majority of professional critics share your views with no positive remarks. this is clearly indicated at rotten tomatoes.

actually, i thought that the passage that i chose to quote was pretty reflective of how you felt about mark vincent considering that the only performance that you give him any credit for was his role in the boiler room.

i usually share your views of movies. but i know that in this world mr. vincent will never earn any critical acclaim. it is expected and accepted.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Fair enough, Diallo, and apology firmly accepted.

But you seem to be putting forth the idea that "the critics" are content to just blindly bash the guy. Perhaps it's just that the guy's never done much of anything to earn any critical acclaim. Even in the most formulaic of action flicks, there may be ample opportunity for the leading man to do something other than grunt and sweat.

It's true that I consider Vin's performance in Boiler Room a stand-out moment in his career. Because that's the only time he's ever even shown me anything.

And I'm not saying you need a Shakespearean sonnet in the middle of xXx, but look at a performance like Kurt Russell's in Escape from New York or even The Rock's performance in The Rundown. These are guys who actually seem to be trying for more than one simplistic dimension. To my eyes, Diesel has become a lump, all but entirely devoid of personality or onscreen presence of any kind.

But I always like to be proven wrong. If Vin's next movie (and performance) come as a pleasant surprise to me, you can rest assured that I'll give the guy the credit for it. I certainly don't knock the guy just because he's an action star. I certainly can't speak for "critics" as a whole, but I sincerely doubt that they're "gunning" for the guy just because he's a muscle-bound action hero.

I respect that you dig the guy's work. I, for the most part, absolutely do not.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Hey Scott,
Heretic!!! Unbeliever!!!

Just a B-movie Nothing for us to get worked up about.

As for Vin, I did enjoy him in PB and TFATF (I can't watch it now, but he was a high point). I still need to see Boiler Room. Vin is the kind of actor who's excellent in small doses.

Take care,
Chuck

 

[Andy Sheets]

Yeah, well, Weinberg's certainly free to dislike this movie, but he's forfeited his right to wax nostalgic about Krull from now on

I thought Diesel was geninuely good in Pitch Black. He had that menacing, enigmatic aura down pat, and that's probably why Pitch Black is a more fulfilling movie to me than Riddick is (not that I didn't have fun watching Riddick) - you really don't know what he's going to do in Pitch Black and you want to figure out what's happening inside his head, whereas in Riddick you're mostly just watching him kick ass. Actually, now that I've been thinking about Riddick, that's what makes the ending frustrating to me - they've gotten the character back to that point where you don't know what he's going to do now but then the movie ends! It reminds me of the ending to Dune (the book) but without that very last part that tells you what Paul ended up doing and which made the story kind of haunting.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Hey, I prefer PB as well. One thing I liked about Riddick is that it wasn't PB2. But PB is a superior film.

We can always wax nostalgic about the mighty Krull. Lysette Anthony is/was HOT!

Take care,
Chuck