too bad I am in my fifties and had an afternoon matinee to tempt me. A previous commentator calls RIDDICK a "mediocre mess," but my own reaction differs, as in pure drivel. Of course, one might actually like non-stop "action" to use the euphemism for violence, running around like nuts, and "effects" phantasmagoria.
Allowing the difficulty of coming up with anything really new in s.f., this film has taken from DUNE, ALIEN (+ progeny), INDEPENDENCE DAY, STAR TREK's Borg, and name any Ah-nold movie. The lead is a monotonic hulk in black, cut in the torso to reveal all that upper body mass. The inevitable very liberated kick-'em-in-the-butt heroine has her long black tresses periodically over her face in the most sickening au courrant style -- not what one expects in a penal colony inmate, thanks.
I too was surprised to see the talented Frau Dench in RIDDICK, but must admit being suckered in when seeing the fine Canadian actor Colm Fiore on the bill. He has come a long, long way since playing Prime Minister Trudeau, but the money is a helluva lot better. His rendition of a cardboard evil imperator made me squirm -- for him.
The commentator, supra, expressed irritation with the ending and I concur, a tawdry come-on to a sequel I will not see.
Two notes of mild approbation, too bad wasted on this movie: a) An Islamic society shaped to memories of Earth is clever, a mite like Dune. b) The diurnal changes on the Mercury-like planet were fascinating, although more the coronal effects by its star than the geology/ meteorology of the surface, done for suspense. Look at Mercury. Even if he were closer to the Sun there would not be all that violent weathering with every turn of the planet, and if so, only for a few million years with the surface completely pulverised. One must admit, however, that such a world is new to science fiction, at least to my knowledge. These consideration do not soften my central thesis, however.
Allowing the difficulty of coming up with anything really new in s.f., this film has taken from DUNE, ALIEN (+ progeny), INDEPENDENCE DAY, STAR TREK's Borg, and name any Ah-nold movie. The lead is a monotonic hulk in black, cut in the torso to reveal all that upper body mass. The inevitable very liberated kick-'em-in-the-butt heroine has her long black tresses periodically over her face in the most sickening au courrant style -- not what one expects in a penal colony inmate, thanks.
I too was surprised to see the talented Frau Dench in RIDDICK, but must admit being suckered in when seeing the fine Canadian actor Colm Fiore on the bill. He has come a long, long way since playing Prime Minister Trudeau, but the money is a helluva lot better. His rendition of a cardboard evil imperator made me squirm -- for him.
The commentator, supra, expressed irritation with the ending and I concur, a tawdry come-on to a sequel I will not see.
Two notes of mild approbation, too bad wasted on this movie: a) An Islamic society shaped to memories of Earth is clever, a mite like Dune. b) The diurnal changes on the Mercury-like planet were fascinating, although more the coronal effects by its star than the geology/ meteorology of the surface, done for suspense. Look at Mercury. Even if he were closer to the Sun there would not be all that violent weathering with every turn of the planet, and if so, only for a few million years with the surface completely pulverised. One must admit, however, that such a world is new to science fiction, at least to my knowledge. These consideration do not soften my central thesis, however.