Riddick sequels still coming?

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=107086

 

[Octoberist]

A beast indeed.

 

[Lord]

Beast looks like the films title in that poster

 

[addison81]

I'm looking forward to this. Hope it does well. Would love to see films about the under verse and Furya. I wonder how much this has to make to get another. I know the budget is only $38 million, but I imagine the future films they want to make are much bigger in scope.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Great new pic, and yeah I hope this does well enough to warrant some more movies, we need to see the more of Furya and would love to see the Underverse and possibly the return of Jack/Kyra.

 

[rashad]

Photos from the Riddick Premiere
http://www.justjared.com/2013/08/29/vin-diesel-katee-sackhoff-riddick-premiere/

Riddick - Behind The Scenes Featurette
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Riddick - Blindsided Motion Comic
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[AVEITWITHJAMON]

^Good stuff, hopefully we start getting reviews soon, though I will still be going to see the movie no matter what the critical reception.

 

[Terminator]

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The end of this interview is interesting, confirms an unrated director's cut is coming to Blu Ray.

Any info on the score anywhere?

 

[The Squirrel]

I need to watch Chronicles again in preparation for this.

 

[the last son]

I'll be here regardless, but I can't see this movie doing numbers.

 

[Teelie]

It doesn't have to with the smaller budget it has.

 

[rashad]

I'll be here regardless, but I can't see this movie doing numbers.

The budget was only $40M.

 

[Octoberist]

The sad thing was that the budget was cut by half at the last minute. And while I think a lesser budget can create new creative methods, 'Riddick' LOOKS like it's worth 40 million.

I think the cinematographer should've done a better job at hiding it (like lowering the resolution a bit) and maybe cut back on some of the CGI aliens.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

The budget was only $40M.

I always thought it was $60 million? Or is that before the budget was cut?

 

[Octoberist]

Yeah, the budget was cut (for some reason) right before the shoot.

 

[Teelie]

Vin Diesel even leveraged his house to get this made so I'm hoping it turns a profit and with what is considered a small budget these days, it should be able to recoup the expense.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

$40 million isnt alot for a movie these days, and they seem to be advertising the movie quite a lot, at least here in Australia they are.

Lets hope it can re-coup its budget and more, as I want to see the sequels they have planned.

 

[redhawk23]

I saw this last night at a pre-screening.

I'd say the movie is pretty enjoyable and for the most part surprisingly well made.

I really liked Pitch Black when it came out and return to every few years or whenever it's on cable. The Chronicles of Riddick was a really weird left turn that expanded the world of the franchise but really was a very different kind of film than pitch black was with all the Necromonger stuff. With this new film they try to take things back to Pitch Black territory, ultimately almost to a fault. They quickly address the situation from the end of chronicles but a but a betrayal leaves Riddick injured and stranded on a strange planet.

Much of the film just deals with Riddick's stuggle to survive. This whole chunk of the movie is pretty much fantastic. Diesel does a fantastic job of selling Riddick as someone who is barely keeping it together through pure force of will alone. This whole chunk of the film features some really good effects and camera work, to a surprising degree. You can feel them rapidly burning through their budget, which starts to become more apparent as the film goes on. There's a point later in the film where it becomes pretty obvious they had to switch cameras and the film becomes bound to a single setting.

It is in the second half of the film that the movie moves into straight up Pitch Black territory, which was great at first but then begins to drag a little bit. There is only so much joy that can be derived from watching Riddick slice things in half.

That isn't to say there isn't a lot to like about this portion of the film. They very obviously go for a kind of Aliens sort of vibe in this portion, with a cast of big gunned heavies (mercs and bounty hunters here, rather than soldiers) facing off against a swarm of alien monsters. You don't get to know much about any of these people but they don't stick around long enough to be grating or anything.

For the most part the acting is pretty good or at least serviceable, Diesel is great in his role. All that said though, I was very disappointed in Katee Sackhoff's involvement in the film. Its not that she's bad in the film, but rather that she is given nothing to do. Her character is presented as a hardass Lesbian, which draws comments and jibes from the other characters, much like Vasquez in aliens. But then that just continues. Her character exists for the most part to just catch s### from everyone else and get topless for a second. [BLACKOUT]at one point there is even an attempted rape[/BLACKOUT] that is troublingly never really addressed.

You can see what they were trying to go for with Sackhoff, and she does get a few good moments, but for the most part her casting is a wasted opportunity.

As I've hinted before, the film goes a little too far in becoming Pitch Black towards the end, and even goes out of its way to tie itself back into Pitch Black with some of the characters. It comes off a little too fan-servicey in a franchise that doesn't necessarily have a huge amount of super-dedicated fans to appreciated it anyways.



The short version: This movie works as an exciting action film that feels like both a throw back to Pitch Black and a lot of 80s movies. It features some really impressive effects work for much of the film. The beginning where they have to distance themselves from Chronicles territory is a bit clunky, the film can drag a bit, and the film features some questionable gender politics, but ultimately I can highly recommend the film as good time. 7/10

 

[DaRkVeNgeanCe]

Glad to hear you enjoyed it Redhawk I'm really hoping it'll be good, did the Robocop trailer play with your showing?

 

[SilentWarriorZ]

Did he end up Stranded on the same planet that was in Pitch Black ?

 

[redhawk23]

Not the same planet, but similar enough.


No trailers played with my screening.

 

[Octoberist]

There's a part of me who wished it was focus on just the mercs, not so much the aliens. Would the movie be more interesting that way?

 

[TheVileOne]

I loved it. Was like a classic, budget, hard-R sci-fi movie. First act is amazing.

Hope it does on par with projections (about $20 million) so we can hopefully see more.

Getting this movie made on a cheaper budget was to its benefit. Chronicles of Riddick was way too ambitious for its own good.

 

[MrMaooz]

JeremyJahns says it's a good time if you're drunk.

 

[redhawk23]

I loved it. Was like a classic, budget, hard-R sci-fi movie. First act is amazing.

Hope it does on par with projections (about $20 million) so we can hopefully see more.

Getting this movie made on a cheaper budget was to its benefit. Chronicles of Riddick was way too ambitious for its own good.

Riddick came about at a weird time when Universal really wanted a big scifi property so they threw 100 million at a sequel. It was weird.

And yeah, Octoberist the third act would have been a lot better if they had just focused on developing the mercs and their different reasons for wanting to capture Riddick. Not that the aliens in this aren't awesome, but it gets a little old. The last 3rd of this movie is plays like the entirety of Pitch Black, which is odd.