I just loved the Riddick in Pitch Black although the basic premise of the movie was sort of cheap copy of the Alien. Still, he was a selfish bastard almost all the time and what was almost the best part was that the end was not exactly predictable. I was sure that the woman (I don’t remember her name, ATM) at the end would survive and so on like in so many other movies. So, a nice surprise. Even though it would have been cool to see Riddick continue his escape by himself I’m not sure it would have survived that well in the end as the end of story.

I think that Vin Diesel attributed Riddick as being “Conan in space” in one of his comments. But still hauling up all that supernatural stuff, Riddick being a Furian etc. was a bit of a let down for me. I didn’t need that for liking Riddick. Just being how he was shown in the first movie would have been even better. Just surviving by being mean and unscrupulous would have shown a strength of character instead of surviving because of his heritage.

An easier way to get your arms around the idea of chaotic inflation is to look at this jpeg:

http://www.stanford.edu/~alinde/Multiverse2009.jpg

imagine endless bubbles sprouting off from one another. Our universe is one of them.

http://autumnrain2110.com/blog/2008/07/29/chronicles-of-riddick/

I’ve read somewhere that Movie #2 was all about the journey to the Underverse, which Twohy envisioned as a parallel world — possibly of the inflation variety.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaotic_Inflation_theory

I’m not gonna even try to justify the science of reaching another “bubble” universe, but it probably would have made for a cool flick.

Part 2 would definitely be the supernatural element. I think most people would say that Pitch Black conveyed a sense of realism in many ways. That all got thrown out the window in the sequel. Now we have elementals, bad guys that can warp around the room, and Riddick’s eyeshine is now just a racial byproduct instead of this great prison story.

And finally the entire destiny aspect. There is only 1 remaining Furyan and it’s Riddick and he is destined to defeat the lord of the Necromongers. I think the whole prophecy thing turned a lot of people off and raised the cheese factor a bit. Sometimes I think the ending of Chronicles could best be described as Conan in space.

Don’t get me wrong, I own the DVD and enjoyed the movie immensely. But I can’t necessarily disagree with the complaints either. I think the idea originally floated was to do a prequel showing how Riddick wound up in that cargo hauler as a prisoner. That could have been fantastic and may have gone over better. I am curious though, has anyone seen what David Twohy had planned to happen in the third movie originally if Chronicles had not tanked?

But I think you raise a good point. I’m personally a lot more bullish on Chronicles than most– I thought it was a cool story with some gorgeous set-pieces . . . I honestly kinda think if they’d kept the original Riddick-as-noble-savage set-up rather than delve into the astral/supernatural, the movie might have resonated more with the mainstream. And maybe the core SF audience too.

Convert now or fall forever….

Let’s get real here: Pitch Black wasn’t exactly King Lear…a pretty basic monster in the dark movie where Riddick was a murderer in survival mode for like 99.9% of the film, and he reclaims a portion of his humanity in the last 5 minutes.

So what in the world were people missing from the sequel? More monsters in the dark? Maybe more intense interpersonal conflict? Riddick turned prison life-coach, forced to kill again because nurse Ratched lobotomized his favorite mentee? All I know is a bad-ass vs army of planet-killing psycho-cultists was good enough for me.

But I really like the direction it sounds like Twohy’s taking this in now . . . if Rodriguez’ Predator is a huge hit (which seems likely), Riddick might be poised to really clean up.