# Riddick series, what were they thinking? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 9, 2012, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddick-series-what-were-they-thinking/612305 "2012-02-09T12:03:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddick-series-what-were-they-thinking/612305/21 "2012-02-10T04:12:59Z")
I thought the sequel was too dark and the religious/fantasy, as said, fucked up an interesting universe. Be nice if the next sequel does an about-face from that crap. I did think the escape from the prison world in the sequel was a lot closer in feel to the original. But there was just too much Necrom crap, they were not even interesting villains … buncha gloomy, depressed sadomashochists. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddick-series-what-were-they-thinking/612305/22 "2012-02-10T04:20:53Z")
Riddick had some sort of illegal surgery done on his eyes to enable him to see in the dark. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddick-series-what-were-they-thinking/612305/23 "2012-02-10T05:07:05Z")
I hadn’t seen Pitch Black when some friends invited me to see Riddick. I didn’t know it was a sequel. I had no clue what was happening. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddick-series-what-were-they-thinking/612305/24 "2012-02-10T05:36:45Z")
> [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > Riddick had some sort of illegal surgery done on his eyes to enable him to see in the dark. Well, that is what he said. The girl ends up in the same jail because she wanted the same enhancement, but realized Riddick had lied about it. At least that is how I remember part of the second movie playing out. However, one of the Riddick computer games, Escape from Butcher Bay I think, has a segment where Riddick does get some sort of surgery to enhance his eyes. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddick-series-what-were-they-thinking/612305/25 "2012-02-10T15:03:31Z")
I agree that the society in CoR is completey different than the one you imagine in PB. Though honestly the thing that bugged me the most in CoR was the prison economy - who’s paying for these crazy prisons on otherwise uninhabitable planets? Why do the prison wardens negotiate high payments to mercs for handing over wanted fugitives? That part made absolutely no sense. > [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > Riddick had some sort of illegal surgery done on his eyes to enable him to see in the dark. Right, he said he paid 20 menthol kools for a surgical shine job. > [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Well, that is what he said. The girl ends up in the same jail because she wanted the same enhancement, but realized Riddick had lied about it. At least that is how I remember part of the second movie playing out. > > However, one of the Riddick computer games, Escape from Butcher Bay I think, has a segment where Riddick does get some sort of surgery to enhance his eyes. In the second movie we find out he’s a Furian, and his crazy eyes are just part of his genetic makeup. Presumably Furia was a very dim planet, since he can’t see in normal daylight without his dark goggles. Escape from Butcher Bay came out right before Chronicles of Riddick, so they presumably didn’t know the corrected backstory of his eyes when they were writing the game. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddick-series-what-were-they-thinking/612305/26 "2012-02-10T15:14:45Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Well, that is what he said. The girl ends up in the same jail because she wanted the same enhancement, but realized Riddick had lied about it. At least that is how I remember part of the second movie playing out. > > However, one of the Riddick computer games, Escape from Butcher Bay I think, has a segment where Riddick does get some sort of surgery to enhance his eyes. I found the sequel to be pretty forgettable, so I didn’t remember that. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddick-series-what-were-they-thinking/612305/27 "2012-02-10T16:10:37Z")
I like _Chronicles_. It’s really different from _Pitch Black_, but a lot of that can be put down to the scenario and setting of the first movie anyway. The _Chronicles_ universe isn’t incompatible - it’s just one of many possible supersets of the _Pitch Black_ universe that could have been invented. It’s not unlike the way some Firefly episodes are dirty cowboy/settler/heist scenarios, with spaceships, and _Serenity (movie)_ is a big epic space drama, with cowboy/settler/heist scenes - the other is a superset of the one (although admittedly, the shift is more pronounced in _Riddick_) ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddick-series-what-were-they-thinking/612305/28 "2012-02-10T16:31:24Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > The _Chronicles_ universe isn’t incompatible - it’s just one of many possible supersets of the _Pitch Black_ universe that could have been invented. It’s sort of like the Alien. Pitch Black hinted at some larger story universe. But in reality, the story is just a locked room puzzle about a group of people trying to assemple the parts they need to escape without being in the dark long enough to get eaten. Aliens effectively expanded the Alien universe by introducing the world of the Colonial Space Marines, some more details on the Wayland-Yutani corporation and some more context around humanity’s expansion into interstellar space. But it didn’t do this at the expense of the story. The seccond Riddick film sort of failed in that it tried to create this sort of huge Conan / Lord of The Rings in space-esq sort of mythology over the course of a single film. It just seemed to cram all this fantasy crap for it’s own sake. That and the Necromongers were gay as shit. ---
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddick-series-what-were-they-thinking/612305/29 "2012-02-10T17:03:44Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Escape from Butcher Bay came out right before Chronicles of Riddick, so they presumably didn’t know the corrected backstory of his eyes when they were writing the game. The game suggested that Riddick’s memories of how he got his night vision was altered by an unknown figure. Probably by one of those spirit-folk from COR as he keeps hearing a woman’s voice in the game guiding him. The whole game is happening in a flashback on the ice-planet Riddick is chased on at the beginning of the film. The intro to the game: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAtDqWsghFU](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAtDqWsghFU) It’s a shame the movie wasn’t based on Escape from Butcher Bay. It was a fun blend of Escape from New York and Aliens with badass setpieces. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddick-series-what-were-they-thinking/612305/30 "2012-02-12T00:39:31Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Vin Diesel pushed to have the original actress get the role again. He tried to have her workout, build muscle, and get into the right shape for it, but it didn’t work. Ah, I didn’t know that. Too bad it didn’t work out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddick-series-what-were-they-thinking/612305.md?page=1)