Weirdhouse Cinema: The Chronicles of Riddick

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Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. My name is Rob.

Lamb and I am Joe McCormick. And hey folks, if I sound any different today, I am recording in an unusual place, so apologies if my audio is not where it always is, but I should be. I should be back to normal soon. But today on Weird House Cinema, we are going to be talking about the two thousand and four science fiction epic The Chronicles of Riddick. Now, Rob, unless I'm mistaken, your pick this week is our most recent film to date, is that correct?

That's correct. For the longest we'd only done twentieth century films, and then we pushed into the twenty first century with two thousand and one's Jason X. That was our first venture into modern times, if you will. And so yeah, this one takes us just a little bit further into the future. This takes us all the way up to two thousand and four. So still, this is a movie that is almost twenty years old, which is kind of harrowing for me to think about that.

This movie really makes me think about the year two thousand and four. I'm thinking about when I was selling tickets at an Imax movie theater and people were trying to buy tickets to this movie which was not showing in Imax.

Yeah, I saw this in the theater. I remember going by myself to see it. So yeah, this is a very in many ways, a very two thousand and four film. It would be interesting to discuss this as we roll into it. You know, there are things that really sort of shriek from that time period, and there are the things I think stand alone pretty well.

But it is.

It's quite a picture. It fascinates me and has always resonated with me for a number of reasons. I mean, on one hand, yeah, it's basically Flash Gordon. It's Flash Gordon with Vin Diesel in it. That's that's my elevator pitch for the movie.

Oh yeah, I can see that the hodgepodge of sci fi fantasy texture is all kind of thrown together with a with a one liner equipping hero.

Right now, I think that the hero in Flash Gordon is is kind of invisible to times and is maybe the least interesting character in the film. It's a lot more complex when you're dealing with Vin Diesel's riddick here, so it'll be it'll be a lot to talk about. But yeah, I love this this film though, bit for

So the first film in this series that created these characters in this world was the movie Pitch Black. That's where Vin Diesel first played Riddick, whose first name is Richard. I didn't know that, Yeah, Richard b Riddick.

Sometimes I think of him as Riddick b Riddick, which amuses me for some reason.

But that's sort of a it's almost a bottle episode of a movie. I mean, bottle episode's not the right to because I think that means it's, you know, you're trying to shoot it mostly in one room or something. I mean is it does have a lot of sweeping visions to show you of you know, multiple sons eclipsing at the same time and all these creatures and stuff, but it's stuck on one planet. You don't get a big sense of the broader world. They're just sort of

Yeah, yeah, I mean it's it's full blown gothic space opera at this point. And yeah, it's I think it's pretty ambitious. The in the filmmaker's own words, they were pitching it is like this is going to be Lord of the Rings esque, Like Lord of the Rings, you know, is still like it's its impact is still resonating. At this time period, studio heads are all sort of salivating of the thought, oh, what'll be the next Lord of

Oh, you mean for it would be like for this and then the next two movies.

Yeah, yeah, Like they allegedly wrote an entire trilogy that springboards off the success and the sort of glimpses of a possible wider universe in Pitch Black, and then this would be a big saga that takes place in this universe. And you know, the studios bought into it. They got a budget of I think I've seen estimates between one hundred and five and one hundred and twenty million. Universal Studios was banking on the success of two thousand and one's The Fast and the Furious and yeah, so they

That's funny. I want to add as a quick note, by the way, that they even used the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings font for the title when this movie opens.

Oh yeah, I don't know if.

You caught that. I mean, not exactly, it's pretty close. But the other thing is I don't want to be smirched this film franchise, because I know that you love it, But I think it's kind of ironic that they were levering off of The Fast and the Furious franchise to turn this into Lord of the Rings, because ultimately, I think the Fast and the Furious franchise became more like The Lord of the Rings Sokka than the ridic franchise.

Did, except by this point perhaps longer in total runtime, right.

Oh yeah, longer than The Lord of the Rings and with more magic.

Yeah. So yeah. To be clear, I really enjoyed this film a lot. I love this film, but I also one of the things I love about it as well is that it is so ridiculously over the top and self indulgent. This is a movie in which multiple people will yell riddic and our hero will outrun the sign.

Yeah.

So there's plenty to enjoy here on multiple levels, no matter what your cinematic diet happens to be.

How many screen of Riddick where there were at least two by the same character Billy Bedlam from con Air he yells Riddick twice? I think maybe does the Lord Marshall ever Riddick.

I don't know if he yells riddick, he definitely there's a lot. I would I want to see a super cut of just people saying riddick in this movie, saying it, yelling at, whispering at whatever. There's a it is a word that must be said a lot.

I don't know if this needs to be observed because he is the star of multiple successful film franchises at this point. But another thing is that Vin Diesel just has such a fun screen presence. I just you know, there are a lot of Vin Diesel movies that are not exactly in my genre wheelhouse. I mean, I'm not really into car racing in the real world, but I do love the Fast and the Furious movies. A lot of it is just is just like Vin Diesel's line delivery.

Yeah, yeah, there's It's weird to try and just sort of sum up exactly what the Vin Diesel presence is in a movie like this, because I mean, clearly he's he's right here in the forefront. He's a driving force. And we'll get into too more of that as well, like behind the scenes as well as on the screen. And you know, me as a viewer and as a someone who appreciates this film, there's plenty of times where it's just too much. It's just too much Vin Diesel

That's when he's at his best. That's but but.

That's but that's the thing. Yeah, I mean it's like that. I wouldn't take those moments out, like, no, we need we need more of those in here. Like he's Vin Diesel, you know, absolutely is Vin Diesel in any film he's in, and it's it's a sight to behold. I don't know what else to say, Like you can't like you, There's

Yes, I kept expecting Vin dieselisms from other franchises to be imported into this one. I was thinking when I was watching it, like what wins the part where he says it's about family?

Yeah, yeah, and yeah there is kind of a family in this but yeah, they don't they don't really say family per se.

And I think they all die.

Now speaking of the whole family thing. And I'm not superversed in the in the world of the Fests and the Furious, but you know, there is that sense of like, Okay, Vin Diesel's at the center of this thing. He's going to build up this cast of people he likes to.

Work with, getting the team together.

Yeah, getting the team together, and also sometimes makes some choices that might seem like a little outside of what you'd expect from an action franchise, but like, clearly it's important to Vin Diesel as a person and an actor, and so you see a lot of that in the cast for this film as well. Like this, this film has a splendid supporting cast. On top of that, it

There are some egregious CGI fire in this movie.

Yeah, fire and space dogs can be a bit much at times, but yeah, yeah, you know, for the most part, I think the space stuff holds up pretty well, or at least I'm more forgiving of that sort of thing. And yeah, this is just a straight up space opera, no matter how badly I want to see. Like, the Wikipedia page for this film describes it as a quote sci fi action horror film, But no, it's not a horror film. This this bit is a maybe it's a grim dark e space opera, but it's space opera.

I don't think anybody just coming to this fresh would call it horror. I think that must be a carryover from Pitch Black, which is a horror movie.

Yeah, that's more of a creature feature, characters marooned on a dangerous dealing with a specific threat, and also like interpersonal threats.

Yeah.

Now, like I said, this is a big swing, and you know the thing about big swings is sometimes you miss, And that was the story with the Chronicles of Ritick. It did not resonate enough with audiences or critics at the time, not on its theatrical debut anyway, it seems to have not made its money back. Though I'm never sure exactly how to really approach the Hollywood math on

It is kind of all inspiring how much Vin Diesel seems to love playing Riddick b Riddick.

Yeah, like you know, they're often you see like that sort of a meme going around like like, oh, well, nobody asked for a second Avatar film, why are we

So you said that I haven't seen the third movie, so it's a return to the you said, shipwrecked survivalism, which is kind of the plot of Pitch Black the first movie. But is he a like marooned on an alien planet as the emperor of the Necromonger Empire.

They there's a sort of a return to form, like, obviously, if they're not going to go continue to go epic space opera, they've got to get him out of that position, and they do early on, but they do so in a way that that doesn't feel too abrupt. And yeah, I've only seen it once, but basically the plot concerns various mercenary groups at odds with each other, Riddick as the guy thereafter, and also weird creatures. Okay, Doki, Yeah, but again I've only seen it once. This is the one.

Let's see, what's the only way to stop a a what would you even call the Necromongers a A an undead empire cult that is going to convert or destroy the entire galaxy. The only way to stop it is the world's coolest criminal.

All right, let's listen to some trailer audio.

They are a plague that now sweeps through the worlds of man, leaving behind a trail of dead planets and towering icons monuments to their unholy crusade. All those poets on all those worlds who spoke of war such an unsightly thing.

They never stood.

Here never fails to inspire, does it?

Each time a world falls The necromongers a dark army that will convert or kill every last human life unless they can be stopped. But sometimes the only way to stop evil is not with good. You must confront it with another kind of evil.

O thee Ready?

Where does he come from? Who are his people? These are the things I need to know.

You remember your home world? Have your rest of the others, others like yourself. It's not my fight.

Consider it a test.

Got bird now or fall forever?

Are you gonna stop the monsters? Now?

I am the monster?

Get ridiculous.

He's beginning to understand.

Are you with me?

Who is this man? He sees everything? You're not?

Then word to bring me down? You're not afraid of the dark, are you.

M M all right, Well, if you want to jump into the Chronicles of Ritick, if you want to jump into just the entire Riddick franchise, well, all those films are widely available in digital and physical formats. I think there are some three packs popping around if you want your your physical media. Now, you'll find two cuts of this film. There's the PG thirteen theatrical release, and then there's an R rated director's cut that is a bit

So that's PG thirteen and they fit their one permitted F bomb in the first five minutes of the movie.

Yeah, yeah, I was. I wasn't. I always forget about the rules with the F So I was like, did I get the wrong one? Am I watching? Which cut? Am I watching? And then eventually became clear I was watching theatrical.

You can only say it once, and they put it right at the top. That's interesting. They you know, bet big in the first time on the first round I.

Never understand the logic there. It's like a child can't repeat this word if they only heard it once, right, I have to hear it twice. They have to confirm what they heard, and then it becomes part of their vocabulary. Which, yeah, I don't know. I was thinking about letting my son watch this film. I was like, PT. Thirteen, maybe he'd maybe he'd enjoy it. I don't think he would have. But but then I was also thinking, yeah, the language. He doesn't need to watch anything with any strong that

Yes, Blade makes much better use of its language budget, which is a much higher budget because that was R rated. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And ultimately, who do you want your children learning their curse words from Wesley Snipes or just some random kid at school who doesn't have a lot of practice. You want somebody who knows what they're doing.

I couldn't agree more.

All right, well, let's get into the people of note here, the connections starting at the top. David Towey is the director and writer. Born nineteen fifty five. He's come up a time or two on the show before American writer and director. His writing credits go all the way back to nineteen eighty eights Critters Too, followed by nineteen eighty nine's Warlock, which of course starred the late Julian Sands along with Richard D. Grant and Mary Warrenoff. Then he

That kind of a sound of thunder, isn't it Yeah?

But instead of like, I guess maybe they were doing that too, but this is like, let's go back in time and watch the Hindenburg crash that sort.

Of thing, Oh okay, rather and then I think.

Yeah, it's like, who are these weird, weirdly dressed people watching the Hindenburg crash? And then it's like, Oh, it's it's time disaster tourists.

I see.

So subsequent scripts after this included ninety three's Warlock The Armageddon that's the sequel to Warlock with Gilian Sands once more. Ninety three is The Fugitive, you know, big, big, big film there Harrison for Tommy Lee Jones. He directed that, Noroe wrote it. He wrote, wrote it. Oh okay Or was a screenwriter on that film. Ill who else might have been involved in it? So other scripts were ninety four's Terminal Velocity, ninety five's water World, and then nineteen

You know, one thing I do appreciate going back and watching these Rittick movies is that it was an attempt to create a whole new, original epic genre universe. Instead of like adapting an existing book or comic series, or just making sequels or remakes to older films. That's something I like to see, you know, just making up new stuff. People who fund movies today, please please put more money into that sort of thing.

Absolutely, yeah, I think there are some interesting choices made in the world creation here, which we'll get into now. Tooey's subsequent writing work has included two thousand and ones Imposter two thousand and twos below which he directed that as well, I think as a Haunted submarine movie. His most recent writing and direct in credit was the Third Riddic Film in twenty thirteen. He's still active. He has

Another thing, speaking of the Riddic universe is I don't know if you read the same thing. I have never played it, but there is a Riddic video game from the early two thousands. I think that is very highly regarded, like it's considered a fantastic game.

Yeah, yeah, I never played the I think there were two of them, and then they were like re released again together. I never played them. I think they came out at a time when I was not doing a lot of video games and I didn't have like the technology to do them right or something. But yeah, I remember they were highly regarded and in Vin Diesel's company at the time. I think it's still around. He has a video game company. They were the ones who put

Oh yeah, on the Graham what's he doing on there?

It's just a pure expression of his hopes, dreams in mind. You know, I can't say anything about Vin Diesel that his his his limitless Instagram account cannot tell you. So yeah, I mean he's a huge star. What can you say?

I guess like workout clips and then clips of his kids doing something cute, and then him like cracking a Corona light.

I think there's a lot of that sort of thing. Yeah, But then also occasionally things related to his his key franchises, you know, some of his favorite characters and all interacting with the fans, being inspirational and so forth. I don't know a lot about Vin Diesel. I think there's a lot about him that's maybe more more private. You know, he's not maybe not one of these celebrities that you know everything about. But he seems like a nice, weird guy.

Wait, let me imagine the perfect Vin Diesel post Vin Diesel rolling up a new character and it is a chaotic, neutral cleric.

Yeah. I've always heard that he's a longtime D and D fan and has like a particular character that like he always uses and so forth.

Oh, okay, is it Riddic? That would be great.

I've heard it has a name. I think it's like some sort of like a dark elf type thing. So it's not too it's exactly the sort of D and D character you'd expect him to have but it's not I think one to one with anything he's played all right. So Vin Diesel was born in nineteen sixty seven's He plays Riddck in this. He's also one of the producers. He's mostly known for what eleven in counting Fast and the Furious films.

I don't know which ones you count it. So he was in the third one, but he's in it for like thirty seconds. I can't believe they gave him the rights to Ridick? Is that right? You said they gave him the right?

That is what I've read. I don't know the full story on that, but I you know, I think that was also a time where they didn't really want to do any more Riddick. They're like, with this bomb, so you can you can have it. Sure, we would rather just have your cameo in this film.

But The Fast and the Furious, though it barely has him. I really like the third movie. It is quite amusing. That's the one in Japan with the drift King. But he comes back, and in my opinion, the Fast and the Furious franchise gets a lot better as it goes on because it gets crazier and crazier with like it's I think starting around the six the movie or so is when like the cars are flying and stuff.

Well, so that's the big franchise. But he also has the Triple X franchise, which I think that one's only like three movies, and he's not even in the second one. It was like he's in the first one, they got someone else in the second one, then they brought him back for the third one.

Yeah. I don't really remember those.

Yeah, I never saw them. Then of course we have the Riddic franchise. Then we have the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and related Marvel films because of course he is groot.

I did see the first one of those, but I don't remember much about that either. I am, compared to most people listening, probably extremely underinformed on the Marvel movies in general.

Well, you know, it's interesting because we were talking about space opera earlier, and of course Guardians of the Galaxy really pushes the Marvel universe into that space opera world. So I've enjoyed the Guardians of the Galaxy movies I've seen. I haven't watched the latest one yet. So Vin Diesel started out as an uncredited extra in nineteen nineties Awakenings, and then he went on to direct and produce both the nineteen ninety five short film Multi Facial and the

Oh yeah, I'm vaguely imagining like a movie poster with Vin Diesel with his muscles out and he's wearing like a two to two or something or yeah.

Is that the pacifier or is that another movie? I can't remember.

I don't Oh yeah, there's one where they he stars across a baby.

Yeah. I included a picture that I grabbed from Vin Diesel's instagram for you, Joe. I think it sums up a lot of what you'll see, the kind of inspirational imagery you'll find there. We see three images of Vin Diesel on here and one I don't know. This is him with like full sleeve tattoos. I don't know if these are his real tattoos or not, but he is

Yeah. I think he Dominic from The Fast and the Furious, whereas across necklace and talks about family. Yeah. Wow. So it's all It's like the real hymn. And then the two other sides of him, which are the characters he plays.

Yes, and he is all of them at once. You know, in the same way that a person may be both child and parent Riddick, Vin Diesel is Riddic and also the Fast and the Furious guy.

Yes. In theological terms, I would be called a modalist in my of Vin Diesel.

All right, well more on Vin Diesel as we continue our discussion here, but we'll go through the rest of the cast here. We have the character Kira in this

So a kind of interesting thing is that I don't know. For some reason, I would have expected the next Riddick adventure after Pitch Black to be a total reset, you know, just essentially ignoring the previous film other than the general world it establishes and the Riddick character. But that's not the case, there is significant continuity from Pitch Black to Chronicles Riddick, including the two other characters that survive at the end of the previous movie are both in this movie.

That's right. Yeah. On one hand Kira and Jack, and the other one is Imam played by Keith David.

Oh always loving Keith David shows up. Yeah.

Keith David's great born nineteen fifty six, best known, I think to many fans out there as Child's one of the two survivors at the end of nineteen eighty two is the thing from John Carpenter, and also he played Frank in John Carpenter's They Live in nineteen eighty eight. He of course has that epic fight with Roddy Rowdy Piper.

I cannot. I don't even want to start talking about that fight scene and They Live I will, I will embarrass myself with all the good things I want to say about it.

One of the best, yeah, fight scenes, long drawn out fight scenes you'll find and in a film no weapons per se, mostly fisticuffs and grappling, and also mostly realistically and comfort involves like at least a couple of wrestling maneuvers pro wrestling maneuvers it's a tree.

It's one of the one of the times I have laughed hardest at a movie in my life was the first time I saw that fight scene.

Yeah. Yeah, we may have to come back to that one sometime. So. Keith David has had a long and interesting career. He was in a film nineteen seventy nine production of Coriolanus with Morgan Freeman in the title role. He appeared as Keith and also Keith the Handyman on

The casting director won't allow it.

But imagine that poster. Imagine if they were the stars. David Keith and Keith David are and then you have some sort of clever like buddy team up title to Keith to David. I don't know.

Now this next actor you're gonna mention. I read that apparently Vin Diesel convinced her to be in the film by sending her an enormous bouquet of flowers.

That's what I read too. Yeah, apparently he was like, look, we want to cast the rest of this film, and I can't do it until I cast you, like you're essential for this. And yeah, the actor he sent these flowers to is Dame Judy Dinch, who plays Arion, a member of the Element in this picture.

I mean, Judy Dinch is wonderful. She's Judy Dinch. There is something funny about the fact that she's in Chronicles of Riddick.

Yeah, I mean, I think this is the only science fiction film she's done. I mean, you can make a case for James Bond essentially being sci fi and maybe one or two other films, but in terms of like pure people in space doing space things, this is it. And I think I saw that, Like in her autobiography, she doesn't have much to say about this film other than like, I didn't really understand any of it, but everyone was nice and the sets were really cool, so

Maybe she'll come back for Riddick Furia.

She might, she might very well. I mean, I hope, so, I hope the next Riddick movie includes all of my favorite elements of this movie, and that includes our next actor, Nick Chinlund, who plays the character Toombs, a mercenary who's hot on Riddick's trail.

You know, I noticed that they left him. They deliberately show him being left alive at the end of this movie so that he can come back in a sequel.

Yeah. This was apparently a case where originally he died in the script and in fact the novelization of the Chronicles of Riddick by Alan Dean Foster, which which I read for this episode. I'll hold it up here for you to stay on screen. Jow.

Wow, you read words. You did research.

I did my research. He died. His character dies in the book too, because you know, clearly the book is you know, coming together at an earlier stage of production. But yeah, they decided this character is too much fun. We've got to leave the option open.

So instead of dying, he gets left in a cage next to two CGI I don't know rock panthers and just is rattling the bars, screaming Riddy.

It's great, so good. This is a role that called for a scene chewing gargoyle and chin Lind totally answered the call. And I think his facial hair in this is key, Like he has these super pointed sideburns and like this weird little soul patch going on, and his hair is all like he's he's got this just total gargoyle energy and just really leans into the performance.

Yeah. Yeah, so.

Chinlyn was born in sixty one, American actor, active since the late nineteen eighties. He played a character named Hashett in ninety two is Lethal Weapon three, which tracks. He voiced Kwan Chi on nineteen ninety six's Mortal Kombat Defenders of the Realm. You pointed this out already, but he played a character named Billy Bedlam in nineteen ninety seven's con Air. I've never seen Kanyir. You'll have to fill me in on this. Oh.

Con Air is in kind of the same space as the Fast Later Fast and the Furious movies, Like it is a big, hilarious, over the top action movie. I think well, I was gonna say it's Michael Bay, but I think it's not Michael Bay. It is one of the movies that is not Michael Babe, but feels like Michael Bay.

Yeah, and has a pretty great cast.

Does that recall? Oh?

Yes, Chinlyn played the serial killer Donnie Faster on two episodes of The X Files. I think he's a shape shifter in that.

Okay, I almost remember this.

Okay. He has played a wide range of supporting roles over the years, but you know, clearly he has the looks and the height. He's a pretty tall guy, so he plays a lot of heavies in villains in films. His other credits include Training Day, both the two thousand and one film and the TV show, and he was also in two thousand and five's The Legend of Zorro. Now this is a smaller role, but I noticed that

I did not notice him in this movie, but I certainly remember him as Ben Fong Torres and almost famous where the gag the whole movie is that the main character is a kid and he is trying to trick Ben Fong Torres into thinking he is an adult rock journalist.

I've seen that one. It's been a long time.

Yeah, all right, lowers his voice on the phone when he's talking to him. Oh yeah, yes, So I need to check with my wife.

All right. Well, let's get to the real villains of the picture. These are members of the Necromonger Empire and heading up the Necromonger Empire. We have the Lord Marshall himself played by Column Fior born nineteen fifty eight, splendid Canadian actor with a strong resume of film, TV, in

I don't know why, but I thought he was Irish. He's not.

No, he's I think he's American born technically, but Canadian, thoroughly Canadian. And yeah, he's great, And I mean he's playing your big bad. He's playing a warlord wizard in a grandiose space opera, so engines are on full power here, and I think he's great.

He has some great scenes of revealing powers that you didn't know he had before, like in the first scene where he ripped somebody sol out, and then in the later scene where he tries to rip Vin Diesel's sol out but fails.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean it's an over the top supervillain role, but he does a great job with it, all right. A sub villain to this an important character. He is the character of Vaco, played by Carl Urban born nineteen seventy two, New Zealand actor who started out in the early nineties playing Julius Caesar on Zena and Hercules, and then he broke out more in two thousand and two with roles in ghost Ship and Lord of the Rings The Two Towers, followed of course, by Return of

Carl Urban can be really great. I don't know if this movie really makes the best use of his talents. He mostly just like stands there kind of looking mean and very grim and it actually I don't recall him having a lot of lines.

No, but his partner, his character's partner in this is really the character that has a lot more going on, and he's kind of like this, he's very stoic and grim and is kind of like a drift, like he's like, he's a very loyal character, but she is Lady Macbeth and his Macbeth towards greatness, Like that's their whole dynamic. So, I mean, he's good in this. But I think Carl Urban's one of those actors that is at his best when he gets to inject some comedy into what he's doing.

Yes, he has a kind of elevated Frankenstein flat top haircut that also ends in a mullet, so try to imagine Frankenstein. But the hair comes up several inches off the scalp and then it's flat on top, and then it goes down into a long tail. Extremely cool. Look, I'm surprised it didn't catch on with the kids. What am I remembering this wrong? No?

No, that describes it to a t. It's kind of like this weird like slicked back Frankenstein mullet. Yeah, yeah, Space warrior haircut.

Right, But how does he keep it standing up like that? Because he wears a helmet. Sometimes I think the heavy metal helmet would push down the flat He must have really good hair gel.

Yeah, or maybe he does do anything. It was here and it's just the helmet does that to his head. I don't know.

Oh, maybe that's all his head under there. Maybe it's bone all the way up.

All right. So that's Vaco, and then we have Dame Vaco. This is his I guess she's like his consort. I'm not sure exactly what this character's official role in the Necromannger Empire is I guess she's kind of like nobility or something.

Yeah, she's assigned official undermining the Lord Marshall duties.

Yes, and she is played by the always terrific British actor Tandy or tandee Way Newton. Most of you probably know Newton best for her work on say HBO's West World. She has a major role on that TV series. She was also in two thousand's Mission Impossible Too, and some of her other bigger credits include nineteen ninety four's Interview with a Vampire, two thousand and fours, Crash in twenty eighteen solo a Star Wars story. Yeah, she's I think she's really great in this, especially when she is in

Yeah, it competes with Revenge of the Siths. She is great in this, and she appears to be having a great time.

Yeah. There are plenty of scenes where she is just comically seductive, you know, but she's still entertaining in those scenes. And she is dressed the whole time in this splendid golden dinosaur skin dress, of which is very stylish.

She's like the only character in the movie who gets Riddic to do what she says.

You know.

Everybody else is like, Riddick, do this, and he's like, no, I won't. But she's just like, well, why don't you just ask him nicely? But she says it in a very breathy, seductive voice, and then he's like, okay.

Okay, I'll see where you're going with this.

Yeah, all right.

And then we also have a necromannger character named what We don't know his name, we just know him by his title. He is the Purifier or Purifier, and this character is played by the always excellent Linus Roach born

Those are two extremely different performances, but he's great in both. Like I remember, in seeing him and Mandy, it was hard to recall how comforting and reassuring instead he was in the Batman movie.

Yeah, Like, this is a This is an act a deeply serious actor who by all counts takes his roles very seriously, and he seems to have deep reservoirs of weird energy to call upon when the role asks for it. And so it's a real treat when he's given at least even a little leeway to let that weirdness out.

Yeah.

He played the title character in nineteen ninety four's Priest from Antonia Byrd. He played Robert F. Kennedy in a two thousand and two TV movie about the American politician, and he did, like a lot of you know, working actors of the modern era, did a whole lot of Law and Order. He did thirty three episodes of Vikings, twenty three episodes of Homeland, and what about NonStop? Well, yes, he was in the twenty fourteen NonStop movie starring Liam Neeson's all Right, Real Quick On just the rest of

All right, Well, you ready to talk about the plot, Let's jump in.

All right?

Well, the film opens with blue energy exploding out of some kind of metal hollow, and then we zoom out to see the light is blasting out of a giant metal structure looming tall in a dark and bloomy sky, kind of like a solid iron skyscraper with these deep ridges running top to bottom and decorated on the top with huge sculptures of stern faces with exaggerated masculine features, wearing military helmets. They look vaguely ancient Roman, but with

Yeah. I've read that aspects of the necromonger design here were inspired in part by Italian sculptor Adolfo Wilt but he was apparently noted for a lot of his proto fascist imagery. But also they took some inspiration from sixteenth century Italian armor designs as well as some twentieth century Art Deco, so you can see a lot of that mixed in to this very gothic space. Opera looked to this, you know, clearly evil empire.

Yeah, so we zoom out to see this inner energy tower is looming over a conquered city and the buildings are reduced to smoking ruins, and there are giant airships flooding the sky over the remains of the metropolis. Then we cut to another one of the glowering metal faces. But this is not another tower. It is part of a helmet. It is a helmet worn by a man with a rigid metal impression of a face covering his actual face. Like there are only eye holes and then

Yeah, and I don't know exactly what the purpose here is. Maybe it's because this is of course Colin Fior playing the Grand Marshal. He's snatching souls left and right, so maybe those are supposed to be representations of souls. But also, as we'll learn, like he's very difficult to get the drop on, he's kind of he has a hyper awareness

And he's got more faces too, Like he's got pauldrons on his shoulders that have faces I bet if you lifted up his arm there'd be faces in the arm pits. So there's yeah, there's a lot of faces on his armor. So the face. This guy is standing with a bunch of other mean looking space toughs in threatening armor of various sorts. There's another guy with a mask covering only the lower part of his face, so he looks kind of like Scorpion or sub Zero. And they're looking out

Yep, these are the Necromongers. They are I guess you could describe them as an imperialistic, astronomadic warrior culture centered around an anti natalist death cult. They believe that human life in the universe is a mistake and that there's a better life in the underverse, which is a concept that's kind of shrouded in mystery, but seems to at once be an afterlife and also an actual dimension that can be accessed through a physical threshold in addition to access via just normal death.

So it's kind of like the ancient Greek vision of Hades. You know, it's a place you could go to. It's not Yes, it's hard to go there, but you can go.

Right and some people can come back, and then they have privileged information about the universe. I'm gonna mention that Alan Dene Foster has an appendix in the novelization that runs through the details regarding the founding of Necroism and the Necromonger Empire, the six different regimes, and so it's explain that basically the Lord Marshall here is the Holy

Okay, the movie does not make that clear. The less less is said about it in the film.

I like the sense of mystery regarding the religion and beliefs of the Necromongres because I think it makes them feel more threatening and weird, like they have a strange religion that does not travel well unless it is delivered on the edge of the knife. It makes them feel like this great looming threat that they are of course supposed to be.

So next we see the Necromongers inside their ship and one of them operates a device with a switch that is basically a gory crucifix. They've got like really anguished looking crucifix imagery all over the place.

Yeah, they're big on pain as much.

Yeah, Yeah, kind of mixed with some Alex grayish kind of bodies with like the skin peeled back, you see the muscles and all that. They flip the crucifix switch and it unleashes this blast of energy that destroys the face of the entire planet, and the narration continues. Judy Dench says, if we are to survive, a new balance must be found in normal times. When are the normal times? I don't know. In normal times, evil would be fought by good, but in times like these, well, it should

Now this bit about evil should be fought by another kind of evil. This always gave me pause because in any question the whole endeavor here, because he's Riddick really another kind of evil.

Well, I think they're trying to set him up that way in order to achieve a character dynamic that a lot of films and stories try to do because it's fun and pleasing. So they want him to be perceived as bad in the beginning, and they do some work to achieve that. I've actually got a whole note about this and minute based on some stuff Riddick says in the first you know, ten minutes of the film.

All right, well, we'll come back to most of that, but I'll just say briefly that I never think of Riddick as an evil care you know, he's the self interested loner who's very distrustful of others, and he's buried his heart and his feelings within this grim, hyper masculine exterior, this nihilistic mindset. But you know, and this is also part of sort of the hyper masculine stereotype that yeah, we see that that exterior can be pierced and the

Well, in the first film in Pitch Black, they spend a big part like the first half of the film, he has understood as a brutal, sadistic murderer who will kill you the first chance he gets. Like he's a prisoner of I think, who is understood to be like a police officer at the beginning, but then is revealed to be like a sadistic bounty hunter later.

Played by wings Houser's son.

Yeah, oh yeah, okay what Cole Hauser?

I think, wasn't it?

But yeah, it's the classic, you know, the criminal with the heart of gold story, Like at the beginning, he's an evil, sadistic murderer who will kill anyone, but then he gets a chance to kill the good characters and he doesn't and then ends up helping them in the end. So he's revealed to actually be a sweetheart. But I'll come back to that in a minute. So we open on a chase scene. There's a blizzard blasting a man in like goggles sort of sunshaded goggles, with a scraggly

Yeah, playing tombs, tombs, And.

So he's flying the spaceship. He's got a couple of gunners and they are chasing down the running Man, trying to shoot him with these wire spider webs to capture him. But the running Man is too fast, he's too crafty. He keeps faking them out.

Yeah again, Tims is terrific. He's responsible for some of the most cheeseball lines in the whole picture. And Chinlan is just all the I'm giving us the maximum tombs experience you got to admire.

Yeah, And I guess the filmmakers are trying to fake us out for a second here with the hair and the beard but I mean, could this be anybody other than Riddick? And then toom says Riddish.

Now, one of the things I love about novelizations of films, And I don't I mean, I mean, I'm not a It's rare that I'll actually pick one up. But I just happened to see this once I grabbed it. But I love this weird exercise of this being written at

So he's disguised as a space yety right, yeah, shriek of the necromongered.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Oh, I guess they dropped that before they even filmed it, because I was playing close attention to the boots here and he's definitely just wearing boots and not big ridiculous like space yety feet.

That is a real shame they discarded that. No, instead, he just looks like a yetti because he's got a long hair and a beard instead of his classic smooth Riddick look. So Riddick lures the space ship into a cave, Tombs flies in after him, despite warnings from the gunners that it is too tight, but he says this is going to be the biggest payday ever. But in the winding dark channels of the cave, Riddick manages to take out the two gunners on the sides of the ship

Yeah, I mean that's the whole Riddic deal, right, I mean, he's he's always portrayed as highly capable and just outclassing most human beings he comes into contact with.

So the scared guy goes outside side hatch with a gun, starts looking around for Riddick, but he outsmarts them again. Riddick is on top of the ship. They actually this happens multiple times in the movie where people are like looking out of some aperture at the world and they're like looking for Riddick, but Riddick is on top of whatever they're looking out of.

Yeah, you gotta pan up if you want to find the Riddic.

Yeah, So he like grabs the bounty hunter, throws him down into the chasm below, and then he's inside the ship alone with tombs and Vin Diesel said. The first thing he says here, he goes, you made three mistakes. First, you took the job, Second, you came light a four

Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean Riddick had has tons of those attitude laden one liners in this film, and there's at least one scene in which he one liners and then drops his deal with it shades literally yeah, And I think that sums up a lot about the picture and the character, like that's that Rittic energy.

So now Riddick narrates, he says, I knew they'd come for me. It took them five years but I knew you don't expect these merks to have any honor, any code. But this new bounty from a holy man, a guy whose neck eye saved well, Lesson learned no such word as friend can only end bad when you let someone get too close, bad for them. So now it's back to civilization. All the brightness and everything I hate just wanted to be left alone. So here's where I wanted

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I mean it's it Also it makes I think it also makes sense from like, you know, a character standpoint, It's like, Okay, you know, maybe he's relapsed into evil, or maybe that whole Heart of Gold thing was just that was just a quirk, you know, fluke. Yeah, it was a fluke. You know, he's still actually evil. And then ultimately, like you got to tell a story about this guy. You need a new character arc. You can't just be like, oh, he's good now, and he's

Also in the scene, Ridick is doing some kind of medical thing to himself and it looks like a kind of alien dialysis where he's cycling his blood through tubes with this blue liquid.

Yeah, I think he's getting ready for space travel. I think in the first movie too, space travel, hyper sleep, cryo sleep, whatever they call it, and this one, you know, it's kind of like a hot sleep. It's not pleasant. One note that my wife had on this film is too much part of it with me or rewatch part of it with me over lunch the other day is that travel through space and this is depicted as challenging

Okay, So Ritick arrives on Helion Prime and also happens to wreck a local police ship on the way in. I don't know why. I guess they're just showing he's bad again, like he just sort of does.

An entire establishment.

Yeah, and this is where Keith David lives in a city called New Mecca on Helion Prime. And so we see Keith David walking around the marketplace, arriving at his home only to find Vin Diesel already in his house shaving his head. Now, this is the smooth muscle man we are familiar, you're with he is he is smooth once more. Now, this is the first scene in the movie where we see Riddick's eyes shine where his pupils are kind of shining in the dark. Uh, do you want to explain that that concept?

Rob? Yeah? I think the idea here is that Riddick uh had his eyes were replaced or souped up on a prison planet where the prisoners had to work in the dark. And so they were like, well they got to work in the dark, let's give them all, you know, night vision. Let's give them let's give them all goggles a night right there, and their their eyeballs. I don't think it's part of being a Furian. Being a Furian is all about being from a planetary group of humans

Uh yeah, I think I I think he says in the movie that they did this to him with his eyes, so I think it was a surgical procedure, and it has the cont so he can see in the dark, and that comes in multiple scenes where he's like fighting people in a dark room and all he can see. But also it means that he has to wear those goggles whenever there's light because the light hurts his eyes.

Honestly, this is something that always confuses me and seems needlessly complex with comic book characters where they have an origin story where it's like, well, first, these are the crazy things that I was either born with or got via exposure to radiation, But then I also got these other things, so that's like, yeah, the Spider Man, it's like, well, radioactive Spider bit me, and now I can climb on walls, and then also I invented highly advanced web shooting technology

Yeah. Yeah. So Riddick confronts Imam about the bounty on his head and he threatens him with a knife, and Immam explains that he had to find him because it was a matter of saving the universe. So he takes him out that night to show him what he means. There's this giant white shape burning in the night sky, and he says, it is said that the comet always precedes them, these world enders. The Coalsack planets are gone, eight million settlers are missing, the entire aqualin system has gone. Too.

Now. This moment with the comet, I always like this, And we see a shot either here or later where we I think it's later we see the comet, and I think it gives a weird astrological bent to the impending arrival of the Necromongers, and it helps drive this kind of ancient world model of into planetary human civilization that we see in the film, because while the world building is not always like super overt we're not shown maps of star systems and so forth. You know, there's

Yeah, but we're about to get some more solid information because Judy Dench is about to show up. So the people who ultimately place the bounty on Riddick, they show up and explain things. It's like three guys in robes with hoods and Judy Dinch and she she kind of morphs into being out of gusts of wind and explains that she is an elemental being called named Arion, and then Riddick puts a knife to her throat.

Once you get to know Riddick, you know, that's just what he does. That's that's like, this means he likes you.

It's how he says hello, Yeah, knife to your throat and she explains some backstory. Okay, we got the Necromongers. They're a scourge, a militaristic religious cult goes from planet to planet, converting everybody to their faith of secrets from beyond death and killing everyone who will not convert. There is a planet who stood up to them, the only

Oh, sounds like we got ourselves a prophecy.

That's right. So they're interrupted when soldiers come to the house looking for a quote spy that was seen arriving earlier. So I guess that part seems a little off, like, wouldn't Riddick be able to sneak in undetected? It seems weird that they saw him, but they did, and so the soldiers come in to arrest him. But then Riddick snuffs out some candles so the room is dark, and then beats them all up in the dark, so we see him, you know, this is sort of his thing.

Yeah, he's like, oh yeah, there's a great scene where he puts his hands over the candles and he's like, oh, I'm turning out the lights now. And it's like a plus five to every attack.

So Ridick also finds out some other stuff that the other survivor from the first movie, the young girl named Jack, she went looking for him, and she was last heard of going to the planet Crematoria, where it is too hot to set foot on the surface, and there's a general sense that Riddick somehow let her down, like he was supposed to watch out for her. She idolized him, but he went on to do crimes or something. Then there's more attacking. The Necromongers attack the planet and there's

Yeah? They have you know, enhanced vision kind of like I think you've described as predator vision.

Yeah.

Yeah. Notes, So these are these are lensers and they're not really there's not nothing, not a lot of backstory to what these guys are other than what you see in the film. But Alan Dene Foster describes them as necromongers who, after catastrophic injuries, have been repurposed into these altered sensed tracking units. Necromongers, we should if it's not clear yet. They apparently can't feel pain. That's part of

M Okay, well, here, I think the movie can't wait as long as Pitch Black did to reveal that no Rittic is actually good, because he starts already doing heroic stuff, like a mom's wife and daughter are threatened by the lensors and then Riddick saves them. He crushes one necromonger's head with his hands, and so he's generally sort of coming to the rescue in this sequence.

Now I can go on it not about things I like about the Necromongers because I think they're they're pretty cool, but also, like you can, you can probably take issue with some of what you see regarding their military tactics. Like Necromonger troops are big on using things like halbards

I don't know so anyway, Unfortunately, Keith David is killed, but he says, like to the to the Necromonger commander who kills him, he says, there will be an afterlife for me? Will there be for you? And then the next day we see the Necromongers surveying their victory, and we meet new Necromonger characters. So this is Carl Urban and ten dy Way Newton as Voco and Dame Voco, and she is like, man, I love the smell of Necro in the morning. Isn't it great when another empire falls? Yep?

That guy, by the way, is a recognizable Canadian actor, Christopher hayer Doll, who's been in a bunch of things if anyone recognizes him. But yeah, this may be our first look at the Lord Marshall's strange powers, brought on by his half dead status via a journey to the threshold of the Underverse. So these are I really like these effects. They're very fluid shadow movements that allow him to position his astral body ahead of his physical body and it creates a neat visual motif on the screen.

Yeah, so after this, it's like, oh, everybody's like, I don't want to get my soul ripped out. So everybody kneels except one guy. Oh it's Riddick. He's not kneeling, but what but he did get ushered into the room with all the other prisoners. I guess, I don't know, and he says, I bow to no man. So Riddick picks a fight with the huge soldier who killed Keith David and then stabs him in the heart.

Yeah, there's this weird bit with a dagger embedded in the big soldier's back. And I always took this to be something from the battle, like, you know, like maybe they can't feel pain or it's just stuck in the armor but not his back, and that Riddick takes strategic advantage of this. But in the novelization, Alan Dene Foster is like, oh no, no, this dagger got sunk into his back in a previous battle. Oh and he left it there as a symbol of his devotion to Necroism.

This is how much I love Necroism. Yeah, not even going to take the knife.

Out, which is strange, but again we're dealing with what's supposed to be a strange religion.

So so so Riddick kills that guy and The Lord Marshall is impressed by this, so he goes up to talk to Ridick and he shows him the dagger. He says, what do you think of this blade? And then I laughed out loud at the CGI two thousand and four CGI blade spinning in Riddick's hand. I didn't, yeah, And Ridick is like, it's a half a gram heavy on the back end, and the Lord Marshall offers him the dagger.

Oh, this may be goofiest cheeseball line of dialogue in the entire film. And there's some tough competition.

I don't even know what that means though.

Like she's beautiful and he hasn't been around beautiful in a while, and beautiful has its own smell. Okay, but also clearly he hasn't talked to women in a while either, and doesn't really know how it works. I don't know. Riddick is supposed to also have his own natural charisma

I don't know, that's a good question, but yeah, so anyway, he so now he first he's like, I bow to no one, but then Dame Voco is like, come to the ship for mind regression, and he does.

This is a part where the novelization, I think, you know, Alan Dene Foster maybe put in a little extra work to make it makes make a little more sense, where it's like he walks aboard and he's kind of like taken him by the grandeur of things, and then he's kind of like, you know, tricked into going into the mind regression chamber, whereas in the movie Proper, she's kind

Yeah, And so they put him in the mind regression chamber, and this causes him to interface with these ghostlike people stuck in gold machines that are called the quasi Deads.

Well, now, according to Alan den Foster, these are actually the greater quasi Deads used for kind of mental interrogation, while the normal quasi deads or quasis are used for psychic communication across space. Oh okay, so I like those additional details, you know, little extra world building.

Well, the Greater Quasi Deads read his mind and they discovered the backstory about the Furians that he learned earlier. And then they learned the prophecy that the last Furian will destroy them. And then they start freaking out and they like shatter these glass pieces that they're connected to, and they just start going kill the Riddick, Kill the Riddick, And so the Necromongers try, but you know, it's Riddick.

Yeah. I like this, this, this detail that because it's also kind of like he's saved by them. He's saved by the other, the lesser threat that is after him, and he's kind of like, okay, yes, you got me, go ahead and take me off planet.

So they take him to the prison planet of Crematoria to collect a bounty. And what do you know, isn't that where Jack went looking for him earlier.

Now it's Crematoria in the Metallica system.

Yeah, this is their new album. Uh it's pronounced Crematoria.

Yeah.

So the Lord Marshall sends Voco to go out hunting for him, and there is a scene with Dame Voco and she's putting on makeup, but her makeup is like a hot iron. She's like burning her eyelids, so her eyeliner is a hot iron burn. Yeah.

I'm not sure exactly how this is supposed to work. They don't feel pain, but that's true.

So she's egging on her husband. She says, you know, the Lord Marshall knows he's not half the warrior you are. Some say he's too artistic for the job. What does that mean, I have no idea, she says, I wouldn't be surprised if someone soon promoted him to full dead. That's good.

Yeah. It also this also drives something like the kind of questions you have, like about the necromonger's relationship with death, like how much of it is this whole magic other realm of strange energy, and how much of it is like sort of the traditional religious fascinating with an after life and and the worship of death.

Yeah, so she wants her husband Vocco to kill the Lord Marshall and take his place, because the Necromonger ways that whoever kills Lord Marshall becomes the new Lord Marshall. And you know what, I think that's a bad system for electing leaders.

Yeah, yeah, it doesn't. It probably doesn't make for a stable work environment. And that's that's not really what we see here.

I mean, I guess you just not create the right incentives for leadership.

Yeah. This is another case where Alan Dean Foster does a good job in the appendix to the book, weaving this into the history of the movement, particularly as a way that the Necromongers had to handle a really delicate transition from the third to the fourth regime. So like, basically one guy kills the Necromonger leader and becomes the new leader, and then they have to smooth it over by saying, well, actually, did not our founder say you

Perfect. Okay, So Riddick in the Merks who caught him arrive on Crematoria, Billy Bedlam says a line like if I owned this place and hell, I'd rent this place out and live in Hell. Yeah, I get the sentiment. It's a little clunky. I don't know it could have workshopped that one.

Yeah, this is a line. It feels like it takes forever for him to roll out. It's a long walk for less impact than was intended. And I think this is a pup part where Tombs is coming in strong, challenging Reddick for Riddick for cheeseball line of the film. This's a real groner.

Yeah, they take Riddick to the prison. So on this planet, basically, on the night side, it's okay, but on the day side, the sun will roast anything in its path. It's just bombing the surface with fire. So they take Ridick to the prison and they lower him down on the like rope, and then while the bounty hunters are haggling about the price with the prison warden, random prisoners just start attacking Riddick until they are chain whipped by Jack, who reveals that, oh,

Oh and then he belts out another wonderful line of dialogue. Real, oh lord, moment.

Yeah, somebody's looking at him like rough house and having a good time with this panther that was previously eating prisoners, and Riddick just goes, it's an animal thing.

There's another scene earlier on where they're in they're taking Riddick in on this train and you know, he kills somebody in the way in and you know, and all this and he's tapping his foot and then when they get there, he says to himself something like eight point three kilometers like he's been oh yeah, timing it out. And he's like, ah, Riddick, you're too good.

Yeah, he counted the distance so that he and that'll come in later when they escape. So oh yeah, a Riddic and Kira have to sort of rebond. So there's like a scene where some prison guards are attacking Kira and then Riddick comes to the rescue and runs them off. This is the I'm going to kill you with the tea cup scene.

Yeah, he places the tea cup down and has a standoff and then does kill them with the tea cup.

Yeah. Well, at first they're like, you're gonna kill me with your soup cup and he goes, it's tea I'm going to kill you with my tea cup, which is nice. And then there's a funny moment where he appears to be threatening them with like the key to open a tunican.

Yes, yeah, the whole scene's grown inducing, but when he busts out the tunic can key, I do legitimately laugh, as I think is intended.

Okay, but we get some backstory with Riddick and Kira. So Ridick was taking care of her back in New Mecca after the first movie, but then he left and he told her to stay there where she was safe, but she went looking for him. She signed up with mercenaries, ended up getting sold into slavery. Now she's here in this prison and she is a crispy prison warrior. Meanwhile, Ridick is like, I went to snow yetti planet to keep the mercenaries who chase me from getting to you.

Yeah, they got to work through it. They got to kill a bunch of guards and necromongers and that's hopefully going to bring them back together.

Yeah. So later the bounty hunters and the prison guards, I'll start shooting each other for some reason. I think they're the warden I think is mad about necromongers snooping around the planet and this caught. This destruction creates the opportunity to allow Riddick and the others to escape. So Riddick and Kira, a group of other prisoners start getting out of there. Toms is left behind in a cage between two alien panthers, screaming ritty.

Yeah, it's great. I think they were originally going to kill off Tunes and he dies in the novelization, but yeah, they clearly were like, this is too good. We got to save this character and hopefully they'll bring him back in the next Critic movie.

So there's a big action sequence where they're like trying to escape the planet. You know, they're the guards, are taking this tunnel to get to the spaceship to escape, but Riddick and company are running over the surface of the planet before the sunrise catches them and basically just unleashes Napal, these bright orange belches of CGI fire. So they're scampering around in lava channels and over rocks trying to beat the wardens. Ridic does a lot of hopping

Yeah, and I mean the whole this whole sequence is clearly a huge action set piece for the film, but is also just fundamentally dumb because they are out running the sun. They are out running the horizon. And I remember years and years ago I looked at like somebody like breaking this down about how fast they would have to be running to outrun the horizon line of the sun coming up.

But wouldn't you know it, when they finally do get back to the ship, here come a bunch of necromongers. They're already there. And so we got Carl Urban with his like football eyeshadow and the Frankenstein flat top and there's Linus Roach looking squirrely scuba mask guys running around.

There's some great action in this and Vacco gets to bust out some wrestling moves too, like closeline somebody and does a backbreaker move. So this is a this is fun, fun action sequence.

And Kira sneaks away on the Necromonger ship. So you think, oh, no, is Riddick done for Is he's just going to get bombed by the sun.

Is this the end of Riddick.

Nope, he is saved strangely by Linus Roach, the Necromonger priest known as the Purifier, and so he like takes him inside, and then when Riddick wakes up, he delivers a secret message from the Lord Marshall. He's like, okay, Riddick, you just go off somewhere he never come near the Necromongers again, and we won't hunt you. You can just go your own way. And he says, the necromonger in me hopes you stay away, but the fury in in me hopes you won't listen. And then I was like,

I guess the rest of the Furians were all either destroyed or converted, and so maybe this is one of the rare examples of a convert because again that the Necromanngers do not believe in procreation. The only way they replenish their ranks is by taking some of the conquered people that are willing to join the ranks, taking them in and then decimating the rest.

And then he just walks out into the sun and immolates himself.

Three pretty cool, very goth death.

So all this is leading up to a final confrontation. Obviously, Riddick takes the ship. He's going to go back to confront the Necromongers, maybe get Kira back. I think that's what he wants to do. The Lord Marshall was not given a good omen by Judy Densch about whether Riddick

Yes, yeah, I mean her her arguments are pretty pretty solid. She's like, look how afraid he is, Like this is weakness. We don't need this kind of weakness heading up the whole movement here.

But when Riddick gets this shot, there's like a time when the Lord Marshall's back is turned, so he just like jumps out of a balcony with two knives in his hands and he's just diving at him. It doesn't quite get him in that one dive, but it sets up the final battle. So now what else could it be. It's a big final battle.

Yeah, and I really love this this final battle. We get the we get the culmination of prophecy and plotting. The sets and costumes are all, of course amazing, and the fight tells the story, which is always something that I think is essential to a solid fight. You know, there's a physical story going on there blow to blow. Also, each character seems to have a believable expectation of his opponent.

But then, of course there are interventions, so the Lord Marshall can like teleport, so you know, so Riddick can't beat him alone, but he gets some help from Kira and from Voco.

Right right, because Kira has like her loyalties tested, she has a change of heart, it seems, but then she's just killed by the Lord Marshall out of hand. Voco, on the other hand, is like, you know, he's being pushed to greatness. You know, there's no way that Voco could take out the Lord Marshall on his own. But if the Lord Marshall is distracted and or injured by Riddick, well,

So Ridick gets him instead of Voco. And then you see Lady Vodco. She unleashes the no oh.

God, and I'm serious, like it is the most like riveting, like you feel that no in your bones. It's this. This is I love these little moments where you get to see an actor take a very what could be very throwaway and forgettable, especially in a genre movie, to see them just really like wrench their guts out and the audience's guts out with that moment.

And hey, so Ridick, you remember the Necromonger way you keep what you kill, So now Riddick is the Lord Marshall of the Neckromonger Empire. Just turns to Vin Diesel and kneels before him.

It's i mean rules, his rules.

Yeah, it's great.

Yeah, And it's like a thoroughly you know, conan Esque, over the top grim dark ending where it's like, yep, it looks like our hero did succeed in overcoming the dark evil threat that threatened the universe, but he did so by becoming the head of it. And so it kind of raises the question what kind of Lord Marshall

All great questions. And there is a third movie, but I haven't seen it, so I can't answer them.

Well, the third movie, like I said, ultimately is a lower budget affair that I get the impression does not go as hard as they wanted to go. Like I bet the second script that's locked up behind that lock, I bet it was as epic as this one and had a lot more Necromonger stuff, and like clearly they like they had to do something a little more stripped down for the third movie. I'm just hoping that that fourth movie brings it back to this Flash Gordon level that that I love.

Okay, Well, I think that's all I can say. About Chronicles Ridick.

Yeah, yeah, there's a there's a lot lot more we could say, there's there's so many there's so many wonderful moments and so many goofy lines. Uh, this film's a lot of fun. So we'd love to hear from everyone out there if you have thoughts on the Chronicles of Ritick or pitch Black or Riddick or any of the various films and actors that we've discussed here. Uh yeah, let us know. We'll talk about it in future episode of Listener Mail. And uh yeah, just a reminder, we're

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