ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________________

A few years ago I wandered down to my mailbox and pulled out the usual stack of bills and bulky envelopes with pointless pitches for things somebody wanted me to buy. But on this occasion there was a DVD-sized envelope with a friend's name in the return address.

Ah-ha. Randy had sent me another surprise package.

This time is was The Chronicles of Riddick, a Blu-ray he'd burned himself and printed the label on the top side of the disk. It was in a dark red Blu-ray case, with box art Randy had also printed.



I'd seen the movie years earlier, but it wasn't one of my favorites, so the plan behind Randy's act of generosity was to give me another chance to appreciate the movie, and to give the movie another chance to win my sci-fi lovin' heart.

I thanked my benefactor with a cordial PM and saved the movie for the proverbial rainy day.

Today is Thursday, December 17, 2015 and the forecast says there's an 80% chance of proverbial rain, with a high of 56??.

So, I'm watching Riddick.

Warning: If you haven't seen the movie, this post has more spoilers than all the cars in The Fast and the Furious (which, by a strange coincidence, also stars Vin Diesel.)



Okay . . . roll the film, please.

That opening scene with the doomed bounty hunters who thought they could just fly their gorgeous spacecraft into a cave and use three or four big guns to shoot Vin Diesel was a sweet piece of action.





And anybody who needs better special effects of spaceships and space scenes than this movie is just out of luck. By the time Vin got to his destination planet in his newly acquired and totally gorgeous spacecraft, I'd seen enough FX eye candy to give my retinas cavities. (I mean that in a good way, naturally. Not the captivities, the eye candy. Great FX.)

Pretty soon, Vin meets up with Dane Judi Dench, whose wearing a white outfit that makes her look so nice she could give James Bond some ideas that would make Moneypenny jealous.





The photography is excellent, although the deliberate darkness throughout the movie — not to mention the frantic editing and the frequent scenes with constantly strobing lights — makes a little hard to follow the action.

Actually, they got plumb carried away with all the strobing effects in some scenes, and I remembered those Japanese kids who had epileptic seizures from watching cartoons that overdid that. But I made it through Riddick without having any fits, so I guess I don't have epilepsy.

That's good to know.

The story involves a prophecy about Riddick being the guy who will kill the head villain, the leader of an unstoppable army which is conquering the galaxy quicker than you can say "May the Force be with you".



Gee, I always have problems with stories that hinge on a prophecy about a "chosen one" — you know, like Luke Skywalker and Neo and guys like that. I always wonder who did the choosing.



In Star Wars the Midi-chlorians supposedly did it — and my goodness, doesn't that just clear things up completely?

In The Matrix we learned that the machines themselves periodically used a "chosen ones" to help them set up a recurring cycle which kept humanity from either winning the fight or being completely annihilated. Well, that makes more sense, because we knew who did the choosing, and what the purpose was. But it was still kind of wacky, and the ending of the third movie was less than satisfying.



With Riddick, we never find out what supernatural force brought "balance" to the universe by having him take out the villain. Add to that the heavy religious elements of the story and it endis up being pretty far afield from strict science fiction.



Aside from that, however, the movie is pretty good, and it helped me pass this "proverbial rainy day" enjoyably.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

This movie grabbed me from the get-go. I was impressed by the effects, the art direction, the story, the action, the cast, the imagination... just everything. Although I think I still need another movie to clarify who the Furies are and what makes them so special.
_________________
...or not...

WayneO
-----------

[Randy]

Bud,

The deep red case is a specially encoded copy of The Chronicles Of Riddick in HD-DVD format. I wanted you to enjoy the superb quality of the video in HD-DVD video.

The video is in .evo format, but, I have changed the coding instructions on the disc to allow your Blu-ray player to accept and display the wonderful stunning video of the HD-DVD version of this movie.

[Bud Brewster]

I'm glad I mentioned that detail.

I noticed the on-screen "HD" designation at the beginning of the movie when I started watching it today, and I knew it was the product of that same unique conversion you did for the Forbidden Planet BD you made for me!

All the stuff you've sent me stays grouped together in one DVD rack (instead of being mixed in with the "regular" DVDs) because they help me remember just how many times I've opened my mailbox and gotten that happy surprise when seeing your name on the envelopes!
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[tmlindsey]

I didn't care much for Pitch Black, but this film has fantastic production design, cast, everything. A definite improvement.

I was so disappointed with it's eventual sequel.
_________________
"Have you never wondered what it would be like to walk between the ticks and tocks of Time?"