You know that game you were talking about?
Who's the better killer?
Let's play.

I'm a fan of the Riddick character and Pitch Black much more then the movie deserves. Because of that I went to see The Chronicles of Riddick even though I knew it wouldn't be very good. Then I rewatched Pitch Black to get some perspective on why it was, in fact, not very good.

Pitch Black was a paint by number sci-fi movie. It didn't take any risks, had some ridiculous things it doesn't explain (mainly how these creatures manage to exist underground, what do they eat?) but it had Riddick - who I thought was a great character. It was ok that the planet they were on didn't make any sense, I'll grant them that kind of thing just to have fun.

Chronicles does a whole different thing. They take the Riddick chracter, and stay reasonably true to him. The real problem is in the world they set up. The do a cool thing where we find out Riddick is of a semi-human race, which helps explain some of his special talents. But they go off the deep end with lots of other mystical things. The necromongers, the elementals, the weird necromonger sensor beasts, and whatever those things were that try to convert people. I don't mind mystical things, but you have to explain them a bit more. I don't like taking that kind of stuff just on faith. Especially when you're following up a first film where the world concept seemed to be that everything is normal - except for these strange mystical beasts.

Chronicles was also a bit of an epileptic movie (lots of flashing lights.)I was greatly annoyed by this, especially since they kept doing it in fight scenes. But then when I was watching Pitch Black I noticed a lot of the same stuff. It was the same director, so that makes sense. It didn't annoy me in Pitch Black as much though, since most of the good stuff happens when there's no light - so they can't flash all the lights. But if you go back and watch it you'll see lots of flashing in the early scenes.

Anyway, the end of Chronicles implies there will be another one. If they go ahead and make it maybe they'll do better - I wouldn't bet on it though.

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