MovieChat Forums > Riddick (2013) Discussion > Not enough monsters?

Not enough monsters?

posted 10 years ago by mountaindewslave
8 replies | jump to latest

I was disappointed in this movie
I know this had to have had a higher budget than Pitch Black based on Vin Diesel's current star power, yet there were so few monsters!
a vague cloud of thunder shows up and bam there are a million of the scorpion things everywhere. but that doesn't happen until the last 30 minutes of the movie!

did anyone else feel like there was literally no build up to that? just Riddick surviving and being hunted by some mercs and then, BAM, thunderstorm clouds

I don't get how they did not manage to build suspense or a story arc like in Pitch Black. in that film there was the ominous investigation of the planet after the crash; the colonists abandoned little settlement that still had clothes and personal belongings in it. the fascinating little noticing of the sun dial thing that showed a permanent eclipse that came very so many years, etc. etc. etc.

just feel as though the story wasn't well thought out in this one. like not smart at all- and Pitch Black was a very unique and cleverly done horror / sci fi flick

what's strange especially to me is that both films were done by the same director. I guess it's sort of like this with a lot of movie franchises or even directors and writers- hard to repeat the same successful formula years later

If i go crazy will you still call me Superman?

[–] ttaskmaster 10 years ago

The scripts for Riddick 1-4 were supposedly written ages ago.
I think Diesel initially funded a lot of this out of his own pocket, as the studio didn't want to risk it after CoR was such a mess.

[–] cadenbt 10 years ago

I don't think Diesel has 40 million dollars. The studio still needs to fund it. They wouldn't want to risk making another 100 mil on it, but 40 mil is a fair amount for an action flick.

[–] ttaskmaster 10 years ago

A studio did eventually pick up the film, for distribution at least.
But the project was independently produced by Diesel and Twohy and Diesel did front the money to get everything started. There's a bunch of interviews where he explains how he 'leveraged' (I assume that's like mortgaging?) his own house to get the cash for this.
"Since they did not have enough money to shoot the film in its entirety, Diesel had to mortgage his house, obtain loans and spend most of his personal money on the production of the film"

Also, he was reportedly worth $44 million at the time - I doubt he put *all* of that in, although a lot of articles like to suggest he would have been homeless and destitute if this failed.

[–] TRinzler 10 years ago

This film is basically Pitch Black all over again so they had to do things differently to distinguish it.

Hence, another planet teeming with predators but this time, a group of mercs instead of civies, who are actively hunting Riddick (instead of avoiding him) and rather ironically, die sooner as a result.

As in PB, the circumstances turn him from their greatest fear/danger into their only hope.

However, the build up that PB had wouldn't work again because we're expecting the darkness to bring danger. Making a sequel that copies the original will always suffer from this problem, especially so if it's a horror movie.
(E.g. The SAW films come to mind)

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

Hence, another planet teeming with predators ...

Well that's what I would have thought, but the OP appears to think there wasn't enough of them. A case of too much being never enough?🐭

[–] roguejc 9 years ago

I would've like more varied types... but this could be due to budgetary contraints but I wouldn't know since I'm not in the industry. Not sure how much more it would cost to add different CGI animals. A flying animal would've been nice or animals with different shapes and sizes.
Perhaps the OP meant not enough KINDS of creatures as oppose to just not enough.

[–] roguejc 9 years ago

Agreed 100%.. couldn't have said it better myself. Like you said unlike PB this movie was very predictable. There was no build up of suspense and the story arc was very stale.
Basically 1/3 Riddick surviving by himself, 2/3 Riddick fights Mercs and 3/3 Riddick and couple of 'good' mercs fights one single type of scorpion looking animals.

[–] TGJSik83 9 years ago

I have a feeling you will be getting a lot more monsters, since there's gonna be a 4th movie called FURYA and a tv series called MERC CITY.