SF Movies in 2013.....discussions with spoilers

I wanted to make a comment about Riddick so I thought maybe a generic topic heading would be ok . When he was in the cave to recover the sequestered spaceship parts and the motorcycles were sabotaged - I muttered out loud that if a shear pin was all that was missing maybe you could make a new one by bashing a piece of metal into the approximate shape. I would have tried that or attempted to salvage a pin from the other destroyed bike before running the gauntlet of water monsters!

Critically I think the ending was the weakest point {I would have thought he might have some revenge in mind for his former necromancer subordinates} and would have liked a bit more background on his reign as the king of the necromancers but I guess time and money restraints precluded that. I agree with one critic that Katee Sackhoff could have had more screen time.

Shear pin for a motorcycle with no wheels...they were more rocket-scooter than cycles...remember how he did a rollover to burn a few water scorpion monsters.

What disappointed me was that ending where monsters crawled in from everywhere after the rainstorm. It turned a rather interesting movie into a mediocre monster battle that showed no imagination at all. It was sort of like when Bruce Lee was surrounded by 20-30 guys with axes in one of his movies (Enter the Dragon) Bruce is armed with a nanchuck and takes them out as they attacked him one-at-a-time. I remember yelling in my head for those guys to all charge him at once...he would have had no chance....same thing in Riddick...he was great one-on-one but if 2-3 charged him at once he would have had no chance.

I thought Katee Sackhoff did have a decent role in the movie. Tough eye candy but as a 3rd banana in the movie I thought she did well. It was that other actress that I felt sorry for....the one that was shot after being let go by the bounty hunter....exactly what was the purpose of her role in the movie????

I liked the hyena-like pup in the movie. I liked the humour asides from most of the cast.

I never saw the other 2 movies based on the character of Riddick - "Pitch Black" and "Chronicles of Riddick" - but I gather they were not box office hits. Overall I like Vin Diesel as an actor....especially in a support role as in "Saving Private Ryan"

#2 Pitch Black is the best in the series IMOHO. A lot of that may be perception with it being unique at the time and where the "Riddick" character was {very artfully !} developed . The Pitch Black dvd rental listing on Netflix has been listed as "long wait" recently so a lot of people are checking back on the earlier part of the series evidently. I didn't understand the "critics" dissing the second "Chronicles of Riddick" flick, I thought it was super but not "cult status must view great" like Pitch Black.

Hollywood decides for the most part, the success of a movie - the second Riddick movie was a box office disaster due to the effects costing Universal so much - because of that they had no plans for a sequel - Diesel went to the studio and asked if he could make one on his own - I believe the budget was around $20M and based on the first weekend, the third movie was very successful, even if it didn't have much stamina going past the first week - I think it will do well internationally as well.

Well I think he spent the money quite well except for the last 20 mins ....a lot of monster killing expenses could have been avoided with a more interesting ending.....

#2 The shear pin was for the compressor fan on the "hovercycle" if I am not mistaken. Remember Dave Bautista flicking the metal rod while watching Riddick dig for parts?

According to wiki :As of September 22, 2013, Riddick has grossed $37,180,000 in North America, and $36,900,000 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $74,080,000. In North America, the film opened to #1 in its first weekend, with $19,030,375.

Well I sort of wonder why he went so far to bury those things in the first place....so they could wade into all those monsters in the first place and show off those nifty cycles...like I said it is the last 20 minutes I didn't care for....first bit was superb...especially the prep and fight with the one monster in the beginning

I thought I would resurrect this thread by commenting on Brazil the sci-fi movie from 1985 directed by Terry Gilliam



this movie has young Robert DeNiro in a supporting role. Basically the movie is set "some time in the 20th century" and is a dystopia view of the world with big brother, terrorists and information on people being blindly followed.

An order to haul in a Mr. Tuttle for non payment of debt is changed to "Mr. Buttle" and a swat team takes the wrong man in to be interrogated and killed. A clerk's attempt to correct the error leads to more problems.

The movie was presented at a local digital film festival and was quite long (2.5 hours) I loved the sets with ducts from nuclear power plants everywhere, drudgery at the work place rivaling the look in Charlie Chapman's movie "Modern Times".

confusing sometimes, hysterical laughter at others ....well worth the $6.00 to view this movie.

Second & third the recommendation of Brazil. Great style, dark overtones, social satire - and he shares a quality (film) with Gene Wolfe (books) that I love, of playing mind games with reality. I recommend this movie frequently. 12 Monkeys is another great movie, though not quite as much of a gem as Brazil.

I've always had a soft spot for the "Resident Evil" series.

I liked Pitch Black a lot. The sequels were so so. Some good parts, some bad. The Necromancers theme shows some promise. A full scale civil war within the Necromancer camp with Riddick leading one camp would be interesting.

Oddly enough, of the more recent SF films, the ones I enjoyed most were all animation. The Appleseed series earlier on, then Ultramarines (a Warhammer 40K film), and Starship Trooopers, Invasion.

Yep , Brazil is great. I have not watched it in a while and at 2.5 hours wonder if I saw the same iteration of the flick. A sometimes frighteningly familiar satire on bureaucratic nonsense and indifference to people - on one level at least.

Perhaps on the periphery of Sf I streamed The Ninth Gate recently. I had seen the title before but when I scrutinized the credits and saw the director was Roman Polanski and Johnny Depp was in the cast I thought it was worth the effort. Depp is great in a serious role and the film progresses in a mystery solving plot with several entertaining twists. I know most have already probably seen it but for those who have not the plot revolves around finding rare books btw. ;-) The blurbs below give a connotation of "lots of explosions" ...it is not that!.

'Brazil' has a complex history and I understand that the initial theatrical release in the US was badly butchered for length.

>12 RobertDay:,13 Looks like I saw an original cut in that film festival