The Chronicles of Riddick
Not Recommended. Boy, Action movies with heros who are fearless, invulnerable and seem to exist for the sole purpose of looking cool and spouting witty retorts in the face of certain doom are just plain boring. Thatโs what this movie is. I donโt have a problem with the coolness and the retorts, but when that stuff is everything to the movie then forget it. As soon as Riddick walks, just willingly walks, right into an encampment of the enemy (which he does a couple times) and without an iota of fear, knowing that heโs going to just waltz right out of there when he wants, they lost me and Iโm never coming back. This is star glory at its worst. Making gods of celebrity actors. I ainโt gonna worship. David Thowy, who wrote and directed the original excellent Riddick movie, Pitch Black, as well as this one is a good writer-director. But I canโt help but think that this movie is just another example of what happens when big money gets involved in trying to make a sequel to a great little independent movie. The Independent movie is often great because they are forced to be creative with less money, focus on the story, and usually maintain creative control in the hands of those who should have it, the filmmakers, not the marketers and executives. That is the case with Pitch Black. It was a very good sci-fi flick. Riddick is not. Of course, the special effects are good, though I am tired of movies with big sweeping panoramic energy surges or Ghostbusters/Matrix type global explosive devastation. It drains the human interest out of the story. And this one is a very confusing story. The Necromongers are Knights of Nee, I mean Knights of death who are โcrusadingโ to convert or kill whole planets. Problem is, they do not explain the faith with any real substance. They just use the language of faith, like โfaithโ โdoubtโ โbelieve.โ Now, obviously in todayโs context it is highly ironic and indeed stupid to make a movie about โCrusadersโ who are obviously made to look like Catholic knights when they should be looking like Jihad warriors. News flash, people, Crusading Christians are not a problem in this world. Havenโt been for a 1000 years. Another Anti-Christian allusion against the politically acceptable villains of today, Christians. I mean it certainly isnโt the โReligion of Peaceโ and submission that we have to worry about in todayโs world, who are attacking and killing millions of infidels in places like the Sudan, Nigeria, Iraq and on and on, no. Itโs those bloodthirsty โconvert or dieโ Christians. Okaaaaay. Ironically, I canโt help but think that if they were to make this movie relevant by making these Necromongers more like Jihadists than the outdated anachronistic Crusaders, why, that might actually put the lives of the filmmakers in danger from โreligion of peaceโ reprisals. Better to reinforce bigotry against the peacemakers of the world than give up the criminals. After all, itโs only a movie, certainly not something worth dying for. And certainly not worth paying eight dollars for.
