Pre show thoughts:
As many of you (hopefully) realize, Chronicles of Riddick is, in fact, the sequel to what I always thought to be a very well made, if not atleast unique scifi film named Pitch Black. Though it is nothing new to have a sci fi film with a realistic/independent feel to it, that kind of thing doesnt seem to exist these days. Pitch Black was a character driven suspense type of film with a simple yet effective story, creative direction, and few and far between special effects shots that did their job well. The part I loved most about it was the fact that it created this realistic future with believable technology/social systems, but the entire movie takes place on this one lifeless planet.
Anywho, I should stop babbling about a decent film and start talking about Riddick. Although I loved the prequel, I had low expectations considering that I had seen more special effects shots in the commercials than I had seen in all of Pitch Black. This made me think that this movie got a little more money than it needed. I didnt intend to go to this movie, but was dragged along with friends.
The Film:
The thing that truly made this movie unlikeable (among many other things) was the fact that, it actually had some interesting ideas! There were a few (very few) scenes that I actually enjoyed, and they seemed to be completely seperate from the rest of the movie. But that makes it all the worse, because it makes me think that somewhere, inside this piece of trash, there was a salvagable story, once. And that makes me sad.
So where did this movie go wrong? In a word: too much. Too many completely cg shots, too much lightning fast editing, too many strobe lights, too many giant ugly grey sets (too many settings, in fact). This movie had no patience! First we're here, then here, then here. It's not that the audience couldnt stop and breathe, it wasn't like there was too much plot. It's just that we werent on any one given scene for more than a minute or so, and for the love of god, the average shot was maybe 2 seconds long! Whoever made this movie piled so much gaudy crap on top that it completely covered up the tiny ounce of potential that this movie had, and then the fate was sealed by the fact that there was absolutely no character development for anyone.
I won't bother to summarize the plot too much, I'm sure you've seen the commercials: necromongers, a crazy armada like cult, are wiping out planets unless they convert to their religion. Riddick is kinda recruited to beat them all (Fight evil w/ evil omg!!), I'm sure you can guess what happens. The plot was fairly ambiguous, and characters are just kinda dropped in all over the place. But the worst part was the lack of continuity. All of the technology, and the social structures that I spoke of from pitch black, all gone. Suddenly, although Riddick takes place only 5 years after Pitch Black, technology has advanced lightyears ahead, and the governments and worlds/characters seem cartoony, instead of the realistic administratioin/military controlled type of setup that was in pitch black (also, as I believe, earth existed in Pitch Black, but is never mentioned in here). And the few characters that survived the last movie are also inconsistent. That small girl pretending to be a boy, now she is in her late twenties and is like a super hot mass murderer. But Riddick and the holy man have changed little. I may be a pretty messy person, but I can be anal about some things, and incongruence is one of them.
Final Summation
I'm sure this film will make gobs of money, and those gobs will go towards making another garbage film. This pattern won't stop until we the people stop going to bad movies. No one is allowed to complain, not even me, we are fueling the machine. (I announced my retirement from films that I knew would be bad before hand after Van Helsing, was only dragged back to this because other people payed for me, and I was very bored). Soon enough Hollywood will go into another renaissance, but until then, go to your local independent theatre, rent some older movies, and seek out less publicized films....
Please.
Edit: I realize I will get flamed for having taste. Have at me good fellows! It's all in good fun!
As many of you (hopefully) realize, Chronicles of Riddick is, in fact, the sequel to what I always thought to be a very well made, if not atleast unique scifi film named Pitch Black. Though it is nothing new to have a sci fi film with a realistic/independent feel to it, that kind of thing doesnt seem to exist these days. Pitch Black was a character driven suspense type of film with a simple yet effective story, creative direction, and few and far between special effects shots that did their job well. The part I loved most about it was the fact that it created this realistic future with believable technology/social systems, but the entire movie takes place on this one lifeless planet.
Anywho, I should stop babbling about a decent film and start talking about Riddick. Although I loved the prequel, I had low expectations considering that I had seen more special effects shots in the commercials than I had seen in all of Pitch Black. This made me think that this movie got a little more money than it needed. I didnt intend to go to this movie, but was dragged along with friends.
The Film:
The thing that truly made this movie unlikeable (among many other things) was the fact that, it actually had some interesting ideas! There were a few (very few) scenes that I actually enjoyed, and they seemed to be completely seperate from the rest of the movie. But that makes it all the worse, because it makes me think that somewhere, inside this piece of trash, there was a salvagable story, once. And that makes me sad.
So where did this movie go wrong? In a word: too much. Too many completely cg shots, too much lightning fast editing, too many strobe lights, too many giant ugly grey sets (too many settings, in fact). This movie had no patience! First we're here, then here, then here. It's not that the audience couldnt stop and breathe, it wasn't like there was too much plot. It's just that we werent on any one given scene for more than a minute or so, and for the love of god, the average shot was maybe 2 seconds long! Whoever made this movie piled so much gaudy crap on top that it completely covered up the tiny ounce of potential that this movie had, and then the fate was sealed by the fact that there was absolutely no character development for anyone.
I won't bother to summarize the plot too much, I'm sure you've seen the commercials: necromongers, a crazy armada like cult, are wiping out planets unless they convert to their religion. Riddick is kinda recruited to beat them all (Fight evil w/ evil omg!!), I'm sure you can guess what happens. The plot was fairly ambiguous, and characters are just kinda dropped in all over the place. But the worst part was the lack of continuity. All of the technology, and the social structures that I spoke of from pitch black, all gone. Suddenly, although Riddick takes place only 5 years after Pitch Black, technology has advanced lightyears ahead, and the governments and worlds/characters seem cartoony, instead of the realistic administratioin/military controlled type of setup that was in pitch black (also, as I believe, earth existed in Pitch Black, but is never mentioned in here). And the few characters that survived the last movie are also inconsistent. That small girl pretending to be a boy, now she is in her late twenties and is like a super hot mass murderer. But Riddick and the holy man have changed little. I may be a pretty messy person, but I can be anal about some things, and incongruence is one of them.
Final Summation
I'm sure this film will make gobs of money, and those gobs will go towards making another garbage film. This pattern won't stop until we the people stop going to bad movies. No one is allowed to complain, not even me, we are fueling the machine. (I announced my retirement from films that I knew would be bad before hand after Van Helsing, was only dragged back to this because other people payed for me, and I was very bored). Soon enough Hollywood will go into another renaissance, but until then, go to your local independent theatre, rent some older movies, and seek out less publicized films....
Please.
Edit: I realize I will get flamed for having taste. Have at me good fellows! It's all in good fun!