# Chronicles of Riddick (Spoilers)



## Shalimar (Jun 12, 2004)

Ok, we have the other thread going with no spoilers, so we can use this one for the fun stuff.  To start it off, I believe this was a great movie, I was thoroughly entertained, and that was all I was hoping for, so in that regard it was great.

That said, anyone else get the feeling that parts of the story were ripped directly from TV shows and Movies.  I swear, when I heard the prophecy about a Furyian warrior being the one to kill the Lord Marshal, and about how the Lord Marshal launched an attack on Furyia to destroy all the Furyians and the Furyian babies with their own ambilical chords, I had to stop and make sure it was really the Chronicles of Riddick I was watching and not the Chronicles of Goku, otherwise known as Dragonball Z.

Then there was the fight at the end and the way the movie ended with Riddick sitting on the throne with the army at his command, put me in mind of Conan.


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## KingOfChaos (Jun 12, 2004)

Shalimar said:
			
		

> That said, anyone else get the feeling that parts of the story were ripped directly from TV shows and Movies.  I swear, when I heard the prophecy about a Furyian warrior being the one to kill the Lord Marshal, and about how the Lord Marshal launched an attack on Furyia to destroy all the Furyians and the Furyian babies with their own ambilical chords, I had to stop and make sure it was really the Chronicles of Riddick I was watching and not the Chronicles of Goku, otherwise known as Dragonball Z.
> 
> Then there was the fight at the end and the way the movie ended with Riddick sitting on the throne with the army at his command, put me in mind of Conan.




I agree, EXCELLENT flick.  I was expecting it to be really cheesy, but it actually had an epic feel to it that I wasn't expecting..not to mention I loved the bad guys ripped right out of Warhammer 40,000 

I agree on the similarities as well, but since I liked Conan, I didn't mind the head nod to the movie by the ending.


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## DM_Matt (Jun 13, 2004)

Shalimar said:
			
		

> I swear, when I heard the prophecy about a Furyian warrior being the one to kill the Lord Marshal, and about how the Lord Marshal launched an attack on Furyia to destroy all the Furyians and the Furyian babies with their own ambilical chords, I had to stop and make sure it was really the Chronicles of Riddick I was watching and not the Chronicles of Goku, otherwise known as Dragonball Z.




Dragonball Z was NOT the first to do this.  This is a common theme in ancient mythology.


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## TracerBullet42 (Jun 13, 2004)

So is anyone else thinking of their next PC having Weapon Focus/Specialization: Tea Cup?


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## Crothian (Jun 13, 2004)

THat would be improvised weapon.  Loved the King Conan ending.  THe elemntal lady was sort of cool, but wish they would have used her more.  Cremutorium was really cool.  Overall, very fun movie.


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## Psychotic Dreamer (Jun 13, 2004)

I really enjoyed it.  It was fun, action packed and had good story.  I definetly think it would be a cool universe to play in.


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## nHammer (Jun 13, 2004)

Shalimar said:
			
		

> Then there was the fight at the end and the way the movie ended with Riddick sitting on the throne with the army at his command, put me in mind of Conan.




While leaving the theatre a friend said "Quite the Conanish ending". I had to agree.  

The next D&D PC I play is going to be carring a metal tea cup.


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## Kai Lord (Jun 13, 2004)

A so-so movie, but it had its moments.

When the Lord Marshal couldn't pull Vin's soul out, the geek in me chuckled and thought, "must have made his WILL save..."


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## Dark Jezter (Jun 13, 2004)

Kai Lord said:
			
		

> A so-so movie, but it had its moments.
> 
> When the Lord Marshal couldn't pull Vin's soul out, the geek in me chuckled and thought, "must have made his WILL save..."



 Heh!  I thought the _exact_ same thing at that scene.  Will save indeed. 

The ending reminded me of the Scorpion King with the scene where he killed the evil overlord and became the new king, but as DM_Matt mentioned, this is a very common theme in ancient mythology.

All in all, I thought it was a good movie.  I absolutely loved the sets, costumes, and special effects.  Riddick was a hella cool character, and Judy Dench as the air elemental was fascinating (I hope we see more elementals in the sequels).  The only thing I really didn't care for was the main villain, who was rather dull and uninteresting.


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## Kai Lord (Jun 13, 2004)

Ack!  I was just about to watch The Scorpion King for the first time tonight, now its ruined!      Actually I haven't seen it, but the previews themselves spoiled (as they often do) the ending: "Catch _this!_"

Anyway, a couple more things I noticed, or rather didn't notice, from Riddick were scenes and lines in the trailers but not in the movie.

Most specifically the ommission of Diesel's "I am the monster" response to the little girl.

There's also a scene in the trailer where the Lord Marshal is talking about Riddick's homeworld and they show a blond woman in a short skirt walking toward the camera.  I wonder what her scene was supposed to be about.

I also thought it was strange that Furions were just residents of a particular planet, not an actual race, as evidenced by the fact that the Furion Necromonger officer who allows Riddick to escape Crematoria was a near albino white man with blond hair compared to Diesel's half-black half-Italian heritage.


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## Psychotic Dreamer (Jun 13, 2004)

Kai Lord said:
			
		

> Anyway, a couple more things I noticed, or rather didn't notice, from Riddick were scenes and lines in the trailers but not in the movie.
> 
> Most specifically the ommission of Diesel's "I am the monster" response to the little girl.
> 
> There's also a scene in the trailer where the Lord Marshal is talking about Riddick's homeworld and they show a blond woman in a short skirt walking toward the camera.  I wonder what her scene was supposed to be about.




50 minutes were cut from the movie.  So it's not suprising that scenes in the trailer were not in the movie.

As for the scene with the blonde woman....  



Spoiler



She represented Riddick's primitive side.  His animal.


.  From what the director said somewhere he was reuluctant to cut her scenes, but had to.  He wants to put most everything back in on the DVD release.


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## Ankh-Morpork Guard (Jun 13, 2004)

50 minutes?! Wow. Must....have..DVD...NOW!


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## tecnowraith (Jun 13, 2004)

This of cousre is part of a trilogy which their will be 2 more films. I for one know what will happen in the next film.  

Also they also cut a scene from the trailers where you see Riddick releasing an energy field that knocks of his oppenants.


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## Kai Lord (Jun 13, 2004)

tecnowraith said:
			
		

> This of cousre is part of a trilogy which their will be 2 more films. I for one know what will happen in the next film.



Oh yeah?  What do you know?  I heard in Part II he teams up with Grace Jones to fight Wilt Chamberlain.



			
				tecnowraith said:
			
		

> Also they also cut a scene from the trailers where you see Riddick releasing an energy field that knocks of his oppenants.



As well as the part where he says, "I live my life one quarter parsec at a time...."


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## Kai Lord (Jun 13, 2004)

Psychotic Dreamer said:
			
		

> 50 minutes were cut from the movie.  So it's not suprising that scenes in the trailer were not in the movie.



During the scene with the dogs I thought we were going to eventually learn that those were the animals Riddick got his eyes from (they seemed to have the same glowing silver look) and that that was why he took his goggles off and stared the one dog down.  But its been a while since I watched Pitch Black and seem to remember him mentioning something about a "shine job" on his own eyes and not actual transplants.


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## Dark Jezter (Jun 13, 2004)

50 minutes of deleted footage, eh?  So, if a Chronicles of Riddick Extended Edition comes out that adds the deleted scenes back into the film, it would probably be around 2 hours and 45 minutes long.

Of course, it's unlikely that _all_ the deleted scenes would be included.  Heck, even the LotR EEs don't include every single scene that was cut.


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## tecnowraith (Jun 13, 2004)

Kai Lord said:
			
		

> Oh yeah?  What do you know?  I heard in Part II he teams up with Grace Jones to fight Wilt Chamberlain.
> 
> 
> As well as the part where he says, "I live my life one quarter parsec at a time...."





Lets just say it will be a "planes travel" rescue adventure, hint.. hint. I may have said too much.


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## Kai Lord (Jun 13, 2004)

tecnowraith said:
			
		

> Lets just say it will be a "planes travel" rescue adventure, hint.. hint. I may have said too much.



Are you saying that he 



Spoiler



journeys into the underworld to rescue the spirit of Keira


?  Interesting.


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## Kai Lord (Jun 13, 2004)

"Sometimes evil can only be destroyed by another kind of evil..."

So just how "evil" was Riddick?  He does murder an innocent man in cold blood (the pilot who asks him to land for inspection) but everything else he does out of simple self defense or the protection of others (the holy man's family, Keira).  One evil act and a fair amount of good.  Seems to put him squarely under "Chaotic Neutral."

When they first started running the trailers I presumed that the Necromongers would be Neutral Evil with Riddick being Chaotic Evil.  But I just don't see it.  If he didn't murder the Security Pilot I might even suggest he's Chaotic Good.  Just a Chaotic Good guy you don't want to f*** with.  And maybe he didn't intend to kill the pilot, and fully assumed that he'd eject to safety (and maybe he did, did we actually see him crash?).  Reckless.  Dangerous.  Certainly not nice.  But evil?


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## Psychotic Dreamer (Jun 13, 2004)

My basic understanding of Riddicks mindset is he would just as soon as kill you to look at you.  There are only two people he doesn't really want to kill Kyra (Jack) and the holyman, but even them he would if they truely got in his way.  Basically he will do whatever he has to to survive.  That's just what I got from Pitch Black, interviews and such by Vin and the Director/Writer.


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## Kai Lord (Jun 13, 2004)

Psychotic Dreamer said:
			
		

> That's just what I got from Pitch Black, interviews and such by Vin and the Director/Writer.



So would you agree that the movie itself (CoR) paints a different picture?


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## Psychotic Dreamer (Jun 13, 2004)

Kai Lord said:
			
		

> So would you agree that the movie itself (CoR) paints a different picture?




Well at one point it seemed like he was about to kill the holyman and everyone there, but was interupted by the local guards.  He basically kept being put in situations where it was kill to survive and not kill to kill.


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## Hand of Evil (Jun 13, 2004)

I am very interested in see more of this myth they have created, wonder what a full-dead necro was like, plus the location they were going to.


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## ArcOfCorinth (Jun 14, 2004)

Kai Lord said:
			
		

> When they first started running the trailers I presumed that the Necromongers would be Neutral Evil with Riddick being Chaotic Evil.




I'd say the necromongers were Lawful Evil and Riddick Chaotic Neutral/Neutral Evil.


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## blindrage (Jun 14, 2004)

ArcOfCorinth said:
			
		

> I'd say the necromongers were Lawful Evil and Riddick Chaotic Neutral/Neutral Evil.




Riddick is the walking proof of a CN PC if I ever saw one.  Looking out for number one, himself.


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## Aaron L (Jun 14, 2004)

I'd put Riddick on the evil side of Chaotic Neutral.   Not quite evil all out, but one step away.  He doesn't kill for pleasure, he kills out of necessity and on impulse.


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## Hand of Evil (Jun 14, 2004)

At one time in his past I would say Riddick was CE but now more NE/CN.  I also think he has a thing for little girls.


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## mmu1 (Jun 14, 2004)

Shalimar said:
			
		

> That said, anyone else get the feeling that parts of the story were ripped directly from TV shows and Movies.  I swear, when I heard the prophecy about a Furyian warrior being the one to kill the Lord Marshal, and about how the Lord Marshal launched an attack on Furyia to destroy all the Furyians and the Furyian babies with their own ambilical chords, I had to stop and make sure it was really the Chronicles of Riddick I was watching and not the Chronicles of Goku, otherwise known as Dragonball Z.




You hear a story about a ruler ordering the killing of all babies in a particular land, and the first thing you can think of is _Dragonball Z_?

That particular theme's been around a bit longer than that...


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## John Q. Mayhem (Jun 14, 2004)

I liked the movie. It was fun to watch. I'd say the thing that I liked the least were the names. "Necromonger" seem to be a conglomerate of necromancer/warmonger, or just necro/warmonger. The fire planet was in the Ingeon system, planet Crematoria. Heavens to Betsy, maybe it's just part of the Vin Deisel's idiom but it really irritated me. I really liked the movie, though. The Lord Marshal's little spirit-thing trick reminded me of the way they did the Weirding Way for Sci-Fi's _Dune_ movies, and that's a good thing.


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## Jeremy (Jun 14, 2004)

I enjoyed the movie, though those 50 minutes really hurt the consistency of the movie at some points.

Some of the transitions were, "Wait, how did we get to here?"  While others just seemed extremely convenient.  Poor Vin got railroaded through the plot in whatever manner took the least screen time to get back to the action.

I found it very strange that the 3 minute kill contest to take the ship before the sunrise had only music and none of the visceral sound effects such a fight should have...

And I had a problem with the sunrise repeatedly catching them and then suddenly them being in shade again somewhere else.  Did they just go through the mountain from their lower perch?  What happened to the 700 degrees bit?  Shouldn't they be having some trouble once the sun is up?  Or is it just the superheated wind that blows people apart that is the problem?

I continue to enjoy Riddick's knife fighting though.  All except for the CGI testing of the notched necromonger knife.

So what was the deal with the double greataxe fighter who was walking around with the knife in his back all day?


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## Hand of Evil (Jun 14, 2004)

Jeremy said:
			
		

> So what was the deal with the double greataxe fighter who was walking around with the knife in his back all day?



I am not sure, I figured the knife penetrated armor and flesh but did not go deep enough to kill and it was a visual that they are hard to kill also their hearts no longer functioned.   


only debuted at No. 2 with $24.6 million


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## Quasqueton (Jun 14, 2004)

I went into the movie expecting and wanting to like it. But I came out of the movie . . . disappointed.

Let's see if I understand the movie:

Necromunders are attacking and capturing/destroying all the planets of the universe. There are many hints that Necromunders are some kind of undead, but nothing is ever actually explained.

Humanity needs Riddick to stop the Necromunders. So the holyman and elemental put a bounty on Riddick to get mercenaries to hunt him down. Riddick fights off mercenaries and takes their ship to the holyman.

While with the holyman, the police show up. Why did the police want Riddick? For the knocking down of the "interceptor"? How did they know where to look for Riddick? Was the fight scene cool or exciting? Don't know, because it was all dark or strobed.

The Necromunders attack and land that very night. Riddick fights a few, then goes to the "town hall". A Necromunder soldier is not killed (or apparently even bothered) by a knife sticking out of his back, but he is killed when Riddick sticks that same knife in his gut. Huh?

Riddick surrenders to the Necromunders. The Necromunder woman explains to Riddick how they alter people to become Necromunders, and then Riddick allows them to put him in some kind of chamber. Why? It looked like he was willingly laying his head on the chopping block. And he got nothing at all out of that whole episode. He manages to escape the Necromunders.

The mercenaries catch up to him, and he again willingly surrenders to his (other) enemy. So the mercenaries take him to the prison planet of Crematorium. Riddick wanted to go there to find Kira/Jack.

At the prison planet, while the mercanaries haggle for his bounty, Riddick escapes his bonds. If Riddick is so damn bad, having so many and so high bounties on his head (the merc can choose who to deliver him too for the best reward), why don't they just put a bullet in his head and be done with his killing and escaping?

The whole prison system of Crematorium is non-sensical.

What was the bond or understanding that Riddick had with the dogs? That was never explained.

How was the mercs v. guards fight "planned" by Riddick?

The escaped prisoners were outrunning the sunrise? Over that terrain? And when the sunrise finally caught up to them, at the wall, they managed to outdistance it again, with enough time to spare to sit down and watch the Necromunders land and fight the guards.

Riddick, Kyra, and the prisoners fight the Necromunders. Was this scene cool and fun? Don't know again, because it was all close up shots of Riddick, and what was panned back enough to see the actual fight was so jumpy and blurred as to make seeing details impossible.

The Necromunders leave, thinking Riddick dead. The Commissar Necromunder pulls Riddick to safety in the landing pad as the sun rises (again). The Commissar Furian/Necromunder explains the situation to Riddick then suicides by walking out into the sun light. Why? Why suicide? And how does Riddick survive the sunrise just because he is in the hanger, just 10' away from 700 degrees? Good thing for Riddick that heat doesn't spread in his universe.

Riddick flies back to the Necromunders and infiltrates the main ship (we don't see this done). Pretty quickly, Riddick is in personal combat with the Lord Marshal. The LM dies. Riddick is given the throne of a force he doesn't want, leading a religion he doesn't beleive in.


So, what exactly were the Necromunders? Where they undead? If so how could they die from knives and beatings? What were the strange heat-seeing Necromunders? If their purpose was to spot living creatures (as opposed to Necromunders), this suggests the Necromunders were indeed undead. But, again, how do they die from standard wounds? What use being undead? 

What are the elementals? Why was this race even mentioned? The one member we saw was nothing but a "wise woman". Why was it necessary for her to not be a regular human?

Riddick was very willing to allow himself to be captured and put into potentially suicidal situations just so he can act all cool by claiming to have orchestrated everything that happened.

There were sooooo many major things in this movie (universe) that never got explained. And I hate it when movies take a plot/story that could/should very well take many movies to tell, and reduces it down to 2 hours. Hell, Riddick spent more time in the irrelevant (to the plot) prison planet than he did against the Necromunders, which the whole movie premise was about.

The more I think about this movie, the more I dislike it. The day after seeing it, I just felt like it was neither good nor bad, just there. Wouldn't recommend it, but wouldn't deride it either.

Quasqueton


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## Mog Elffoe (Jun 14, 2004)

Hand of Evil said:
			
		

> I am very interested in see more of this myth they have created, wonder what a full-dead necro was like, plus the location they were going to.




We saw plenty of full-dead necromongers in the movie--the ones Riddick left in his wake.  Full-dead necromongers were just that--DEAD.


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## Mog Elffoe (Jun 14, 2004)

John Q. Mayhem said:
			
		

> I'd say the thing that I liked the least were the names. "Necromonger" seem to be a conglomerate of necromancer/warmonger, or just necro/warmonger.




mon·ger (mnggr, mng-) n. 
A dealer in a specific commodity. 

The word 'necromonger' then means death-dealer.  How's that?

I got that their little injection basically deadened their senses so that they were more pliable mentally and also didn't feel pain like a normal person would--hence the big guy with the knife stuck in his back.  Riddick killed him by stabbing him in the heart.  Being 'part-dead' means being that they've been deadened, not that they were undead in the zombie/vampire/lich kind of way.  I got the impression that it was only the 'true believers' in the Necromonger way that could do the whole 'weirding' superspeed bit, namely the Lord Marshall and Vaako.

I liked the movie.  It reminded me of the original Flash Gordon universe than anything else.  Lord Marshall was a Ming the Merciless type, and instead of a goody two shoes Flash type of hero we got Riddick.  It's fun overall, but the quick cut editing of fight scenes really does stink.  Does anyone actually like this style of presenting a fight scene?  There's clearly *some* sort of choreagraphy going on--why not let the audience see it?  Seriously, who thinks that the shaky camera technique looks cool in a movie like this?  It fit for _Saving Private Ryan_--the point was that battle was chaotic and confusing.  You weren't supposed to be able to tell what was going on.  In an action movie like _CoR_ you should be able to see *exactly* how cool and badass these characters are and not just assume that they must be because they're the last ones standing.


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## Hand of Evil (Jun 14, 2004)

Mog Elffoe said:
			
		

> We saw plenty of full-dead necromongers in the movie--the ones Riddick left in his wake.  Full-dead necromongers were just that--DEAD.



I don't know, the villian female made it sound like a reward to her husband (?).


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## Hand of Evil (Jun 14, 2004)

Mog Elffoe said:
			
		

> mon·ger (mnggr, mng-) n.
> A dealer in a specific commodity.
> 
> The word 'necromonger' then means death-dealer.  How's that?
> ...




A thing to remember were the "LENS", necros were cold to them, either showing that their blood was replaced with a chemicial agent or they were dead.  I wonder if the book has more information in it.  More like the Deathstaker (novel by Simon Green) vampires I would say, people who were killed then brought back stronger, faster, and harder to kill.


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## Quasqueton (Jun 14, 2004)

Oh, and another annoyance to me: I didn't recognize the Lord Marshal without his helmet on. I pieced together from the context of the dialogue who he was when seen without his helmet.

Quasqueton


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## Quasqueton (Jun 14, 2004)

> A thing to remember were the "LENS", necros were cold to them, either showing that their blood was replaced with a chemicial agent or they were dead.



Did the movie actually show a necro in view of the "LENS" thingies? All I saw was that the creatures could see humans thermally (even through walls), but I don't remember ever seeing what a necro looked like through the thermal view.

Quasqueton


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## Hand of Evil (Jun 14, 2004)

Quasqueton said:
			
		

> Did the movie actually show a necro in view of the "LENS" thingies? All I saw was that the creatures could see humans thermally (even through walls), but I don't remember ever seeing what a necro looked like through the thermal view.
> 
> Quasqueton




In the hall, when Riddick was wearing the armor, there were 'cold' images in the hall with him, the LENS focused on him.


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## Ankh-Morpork Guard (Jun 14, 2004)

John Q. Mayhem said:
			
		

> I liked the movie. It was fun to watch. I'd say the thing that I liked the least were the names. "Necromonger" seem to be a conglomerate of necromancer/warmonger, or just necro/warmonger. The fire planet was in the Ingeon system, planet Crematoria. Heavens to Betsy, maybe it's just part of the Vin Deisel's idiom but it really irritated me. I really liked the movie, though. The Lord Marshal's little spirit-thing trick reminded me of the way they did the Weirding Way for Sci-Fi's _Dune_ movies, and that's a good thing.



 The names of all the places, for me at least, just screamed of a DM having fun with his players.


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## Planesdragon (Jun 14, 2004)

Quasqueton said:
			
		

> The Necromunders attack and land that very night. Riddick fights a few, then goes to the "town hall". A Necromunder soldier is not killed (or apparently even bothered) by a knife sticking out of his back, but he is killed when Riddick sticks that same knife in his gut. Huh?



 If the knife didn't kill him when it went in, and it was frozen in place so it wouldn't cause any more damage, it not hurting to leave it in is entirely possible--and pulling it out would do just as much harm as shoving it back in.



> What was the bond or understanding that Riddick had with the dogs? That was never explained.



 "It's an animal thing."  It's explained enough.



> The escaped prisoners were outrunning the sunrise? Over that terrain? And when the sunrise finally caught up to them, at the wall, they managed to outdistance it again, with enough time to spare to sit down and watch the Necromunders land and fight the guards.



 That "wall' was a mountain.  Instead of just having to be the rihgt angle to hit the mountain, the sun has to be over the mountain--and, trust me, that can take quite awhile.



> The Commissar Furian/Necromunder explains the situation to Riddick then suicides by walking out into the sun light. Why? Why suicide?



 To avoid enslavement.



> And how does Riddick survive the sunrise just because he is in the hanger, just 10' away from 700 degrees? Good thing for Riddick that heat doesn't spread in his universe.



 Hangar shields.



> What are the elementals? Why was this race even mentioned? The one member we saw was nothing but a "wise woman". Why was it necessary for her to not be a regular human?



 Why necessary to set it in space, or let Riddick see in the dark?



> Hell, Riddick spent more time in the irrelevant (to the plot) prison planet than he did against the Necromunders, which the whole movie premise was about.



 No, it's about Riddick.  The time in the prison is important as it shows the bond to Kira--which will hopefully get revisited later in the series, if they can do a later in the series.

 If you want to see more, recommend the movie.  If it grosses enough, the producers will ask for the key to the second pitch, and we'll get to see CoRII.


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## Welverin (Jun 17, 2004)

The Necromongers kept reminding me of the Deathlords and Abyssals from Exalted.

I also spent half the movie trying to remember where I recognized the actor who played Vaako from.



			
				Kai Lord said:
			
		

> During the scene with the dogs I thought we were going to eventually learn that those were the animals Riddick got his eyes from  >snip<




That, according to Gamespot's review, is explained in the Xbox game CoR: Escape from Butcher Bay.


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## KingOfChaos (Jun 17, 2004)

Welverin said:
			
		

> The Necromongers kept reminding me of the Deathlords and Abyssals from Exalted.
> 
> I also spent half the movie trying to remember where I recognized the actor who played Vaako from.
> 
> ...



 That'd be Karl Urban, who also played Eomir in Lord of the Rings.


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## Welverin (Jun 17, 2004)

I actually figured out it was the guy who played Eomer before it ended, though his name I didn't know. Of course once I did figure it out it elicited a “don't trust in hope comment…”

It was his voice I recognized initially, but it was the different hair and the lack of a beard that inhibited my lack of recognition over all.


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## John Q. Mayhem (Jun 17, 2004)

I thought it was Colin Farrell, but now that Urban is suggested it seems obvious that it's him.


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## ShadowX (Jun 19, 2004)

Just saw the movie and thought it was a pretty good action flick and summer movie.  Here are some criticisms though:

1)  Lord Marshall was not a good bad guy.  They didn't give him enough screen time or something.  They talk about his fear of Riddick, but you never see it.

2)  The shaky camera marred what could have been some great fight scenes.

3)  The beginning of the movie on Helion seemed disconcerting to me.  Maybe it was the flashing lights and quick cuts, but it gave me a headache.

4)  For every nuance and intangible done right, such as the igniting of the atmosphere on Crematorium,  or the artificial sweat when he save Kiara on the cliff, there are a number of holes.  Like why is there any oxygen left on Crematorium, and why does the heat only spread where the light hits,  or what was that suicide group doing in the invasion of Helion.

5)  They didn't develop the Necromongers at all.  They didn't explain what they did to converts, where they came from, why they are so zealous, what their religion is, or where they got their technology.  Nothing.

To me the execution was off for all these great ideas.  All the characters could have been great.  Lord Marshall was Oedipus, Vaaku was a Brutus, his wife of course Lady Macbeth and of course Riddick who wears the unsought mantle of a hero.  The setting was cool and the plot was sound.  It just missed the execution.


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## BuddhasFist (Jun 19, 2004)

Welverin said:
			
		

> The Necromongers kept reminding me of the Deathlords and Abyssals from Exalted.
> 
> I also spent half the movie trying to remember where I recognized the actor who played Vaako from.
> 
> ...




Go Exalted Go! 

Sorry... I got carried away... but yes, Karl Urban rocks. He's my pseudo-hero. He should be awarded some form of medallion of sorts. Perhaps made of Soulsteel?

I liked the movie, it made me feel warm and fuzzy. Don't ask why, because I can't explain it.


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## Tyler Do'Urden (Jun 19, 2004)

I don't know how a movie could be so totally cool and so miserably awful at the same time.  I enjoyed it immensely, but it's a very guilty pleasure- like admitting that I like R.A. Salvatore novels and listening to bad Russian pop groups.

As I told one person who said they hadn't seen Chronicles of Riddick yet, "Have you seen the David Lynch version of Dune?  Have you seen The Fifth Element?  Stargate?  Star Wars?  A movie with Vin Diesel in it?  If you can answer yes to all of the above, you've seen The Chronicles of Riddick."

At the end, I just wanted to shout "He is the Kwisatz Haderach!", as the finale was the most blatant rip-off of Dune I'd ever seen.

But I still enjoyed it, though I shudder to admit it... and I bought the soundtrack this morning, since it'll be a perfect soundtrack for my new Star Wars campaign I'm starting next weekend (which I thought called for something a bit darker than the Star Wars soundtracks, as it's a survival-based campaign set on an ancient darkside stronghold world in the grips of the Great Hyperspace War)...

I give it 3 out of 5.  Fantastic trash, like the Matrix movies or Evangelion, but not great.


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## Frostmarrow (Jun 20, 2004)

When it comes to the physics and science anything goes, in my opinion. It's like those crazy people who keeps shouting that the Eagle never landed on the moon, and go on citing a number of "scientific inconsitencies". Then you go read Nasa'a explanations to why the stars can't be seen or why the shadows move in mysterious ways - and you realise: I don't know all I need to know about space science to make a ruling on this. So the point is: If sciense is confusing enough - why can't fiction be.

Still, I haven't seen this particular flick.


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## Mark Chance (Jun 22, 2004)

Saw two movies today: Riddick and Garfield. The cat was marginally more entertaining. Pitch Black was by far and away the superior Riddick movie. This review from the Los Angeles Times sums up the Riddick nicely enough for me:

Lo! The warrior gathered his might and his muscles to journey into the heart of darkness, whereupon he discovered a race of men, Necromongers, who favor cruelty, form-fitting leather and hairstyles the Old Ones called mullets. The warrior had traveled into the darkness before, into that darkness known as Pitch Black, where he had slain many and befriended a child, Jack, who should have been called Jacqueline. Now grown and known as Kyra, this maiden languishes on a penitentiary planet, where she battles demons and evil, and waits for the return of the hero while wearing totally cute cargo pants. 

Will her hero-warrior return? You bet - after all, there has to be a reason why Vin Diesel's name appears above the title of a Hollywood blowout. A modestly talented actor -- he voiced the robot in the wonderful animated feature The Iron Giant and bared a beating heart in films such as Boiler Room and The Fast and the Furious -- Diesel doesn't have the chops to carry anything heavier than a barbell. But he's a weirdly likable brute, a slab of humanity who's a provocative question mark of a man (admirably, he has refused to declare himself black, white or in between). The name of his company, One Race Productions, suggests he's something of an idealist. He may not be deep, this Diesel, but that may explain why he comes across as such a vividly modern hero. 

Not, sad to say, a hero with taste. Not since John Travolta sprouted a head of dreadlocks and strapped on platform boots for Battlefield Earth has cinematic science fiction been such good-bad fun as in The Chronicles of Riddick. A candidate for Mystery Science Theater 3000-style raillery and communal home-video perusal, the film features Diesel in a reprise of the titular character he introduced to better, less risible effect in Pitch Black. Like that deep-space action flick, Riddick was directed by David Twohy, who generally squeezes B-movie atmosphere and shivers out of his material. (His writing credits include the nifty Warlock and The Fugitive; his directing credits are spottier, though the submarine chiller Below had its moments.) Judging by this new film, Twohy's talents are not served by larger budgets. 

Weighted down with money, pretension and Diesel's tenuous importance -- and not enough story story story -- the follow-up to Pitch Black inverts nearly everything that made the first film an effective-enough shocker. Instead of mystery and shadow (the budget director's best friend) there are hilariously tacky outfits, sets that borrow liberally from David Lynch's Dune and action that borrows heavily from video games. There's Thandie Newton swanning around like a discount Lady Macbeth and Judi Dench slipping through scenes with a self-amused smile. (This dame knows what's going on.) There are new faces (Alexa Davalos as Kyra) and usual suspects (Colm Feore, Linus Roache, Keith David), and the less said about them the better. There are bad guys and good and, of course, our Diesel, a man for some seasons but, alas, not for all movies.


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## The Goblin King (Jun 25, 2004)

I saw this movie yesterday.  It was pretty cool.  Yeah, I thought the running from the sun thing was a little sketchy too.  I guess it wouldn't have been as cool for everyone to suit up and then run across the lava fields.  

"I will kill you with my little teacup" almost made it into my .sig


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## Nifft (Jun 25, 2004)

All in all, I really enjoyed the movie. It felt like it was savagely edited, so I'm really looking forward to the extra 50 minutes of film. It's not a good film, but it's certainly a fun film. 

I do feel that there were some major Missed Opportunities:

- I really wanted to see him kill some random guy and feed it to the Hell-Dog to befriend it. Then, wearing an "innocent" prisoner's blood, he could say his "it's an animal thing" line. This would also be an [Evil] act, and the poor character needs a few more of those to justify his anti-heroic dialogue.

- The name Kira is tougher than _JACK_ ?!?

- Lady Macbeth meets Kira: that would have been fun. They're both quite bloodthirsty little ladies.

- "Riddick, what is best in life?"

 -- N


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## Ibram (Jun 26, 2004)

As a summer flick I throughly enjoyed CoR.  It was a cross between "Conan in Space" and "40K the Movie"

Riddick was very much a Conanesque figure, though not as much a womanizer.

The entire setting of the movie seemed pulled from WH40K, just replace Necromongers with Chaos and God with Emperor and it would have been complete.


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