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Grease Witherspoon Blog - An Overview of the Riddick Movie Trilogy

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The Riddick movie franchise has been around since 2000 and recently the newest film in the franchise (Riddick) is in theaters. Without giving too much away I want to give a general overview of the franchise.

The series began with the sci-fi/horror cult classic Pitch Black in 2000. Pitch Black is still probably the most well received movie in the franchise. The cast is small but their characters are well defined. There are some nice twists and turns along their adventure and it's just a joy to watch.

The special effects are somewhat low budget but they really knew how to use what they had to make the film work. It reminds me of Alien 1 but set on a deserted planet instead of a ship. Also, the director used a lot of techniques to add a good amount of variety to the scenery despite how desolate it was and to give the planet an alien feeling.

The character of Riddick (Vin Diesel) is first introduced as a brutal killer locked up on a merc ship in transport to a prison planet as there is a big bounty on his head. The ship crash lands on an unnamed planet. As the surviving crew members attempt to repair the ship they run into problems and soon learn the planet is more dangerous than the first thought. As the movie progresses we learn more about Riddick and he forms an uneasy alliance with the crew in order to help them escape the planet alive.

Riddick becomes a much more sympathetic character by the end of Pitch Black than he appears to be at first. Diesel has stated in interviews that he loves playing Riddick because Riddick is a really fun anti-hero badass that you don't see very often. His character remains pretty static throughout the series but we do get to learn more about him and his past as the stories unfold. Another reason why people like Riddick is that he's a tough loner who is always trying to stay away from people but he keeps getting sucked back into human drama and being put in situations where he has to be the hero. It's a simple yet effective formula.

Chronicles of Riddick (2004) had a much larger budget than Pitch Black. For the sequel, they decided not to repeat the same sci-fi/horror formula that made Pitch Black successful. Instead they chose to make a cheesy sci-fi adventure epic that expands upon the Riddick universe. Chronicles feels reminiscent of Empire Strikes Back but with a more Roman Empire aesthetic mixed in and with much cheesier dialogue.

Chronicles did poorly at the box office and the theatrical cut received a poor reception. However, I have only seen the directors cut so I don't know how different the theatrical cut was. Chronicles of Riddick has a cult following and I personally enjoy the film quite a bit. Some fans of Pitch Black might be disappointed in it because the movie is a departure from the first movie but I think it's really ambitious and fun in a cheesy way.

There was an animated short (Dark Fury, 2004) that takes place between Pitch Black and Chronicles but it's pretty unnecessary to show what happens between Pitch Black and Chronicles. Even so, Dark Fury is a pretty entertaining animated short that heavily resembles the Star Trek TNG episode 'The Most Toys' (Season 3 ep22) except with Riddick instead of Lt. Data. It's pretty passable unless you are a big fan of the series like me.

Riddick (2013) is the newest film in the Riddick franchise. In many ways it's a return to form for the series. It takes place after the events of Chronicles but it strips down all the epicness and brings the series back to what made Pitch Black work. Fans of Pitch Black and/or Chronicles will likely appreciate Riddick (2013) but the film is still very accessible to newcomers. There are references to the older films but they explain what's going on enough that anyone should be able to follow it.

The opening of the movie has no dialogue, which was a bold move. It's somewhat of a slow paced intro but once things pick up I was engaged all throughout. Like Pitch Black, Riddick does a good job of being unpredictable throughout the movie. There are lots of good twists and reversals to keep things from getting stale despite the film very much following the same formula of Pitch Black.

One of the best things about the new Riddick movie is that it's rated R and they definitely took advantage of that by including more violence, nudity and profanity. I also appreciated that the movie doesn't try to hard to appeal to everyone. Diesel put a lot of his own money into the project because he loves the franchise and the movie really seems like it was made with passion and care.

Diesels performance is as good as ever and the film works on every level. It's simply a fun sci-fi/slasher film with some cheesy dialogue that moves at a nice pace. It seems like Riddick is doing decently at the box office and is on track to make its money back at the end of the day opening up the franchise for more movies. Whether or not more Riddick movies are made, it was a real treat as a fan of the series to see Riddick in theaters again bringing the franchise back to it's sci-fi/slasher roots. Riddick may have an affinity for the darkness but his future looks brighter than ever.

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