Lots of risks with this film, on and off set! What do you think? Want to vote on what I should watch next? Click here! www.patreon.com/jamesvscinema Have some Breaking Bad tomorrow!
I always believed when Riddick was tempting her to leave and she refused his line "how interesting" was genuine surprise. Which indicated his experience and deep distrust of humanity shocked to find a genuinely good person. When died trying to help him the line " not for me" showed his guilt and feeling that he was unworthy of her sacrifice. Then his deliberately killing as many of the creatures as he could in the end showing his anger at her death the first real emotion other than sardonic amusement from this cold calculating killer.
His line of 'That's interesting.' is more about her saying early in the film that 'I'm not going to die for them!' before throwing the switch to dump the passenger compartment. Riddick was awake and heard this. Then got to watch as she changed her tune at the end. He could tell she was being completely honest in that she would die for them, the people she was going to kill in their sleep just a couple days before.
To shine some light here from what I’ve gathered, he did not start out as a killer but someone who became full of rage for unknown reason maybe b/c he couldn’t remember much of his own past or what happened to his people and was labelled a cold blooded killer as he continued killing all the bounty hunters (MERCS) who were after him whether dead or alive but more so alive. THE ASSUMED “COLD BLOODED KILLER” LABEL WOULD’VE BECOME TRUE, IF HE HAD LEFT THEM TO DIE AT THE END BUT SHE CONVINCED HIM AND HONESTLY I THINK AFTER SAVING THAT THE YOUNG GIRL IT SOMEHOW SHOWED HIS REAL SELF IN A WAY.
Chronicles of Riddick is the direct successor to Pitch Black and is MUST SEE. The art direction and design of the film is unlike anything other scifi movie. Always reminds me of Warhammer 40K for those who know what that is.
Chronicles of Riddick is about as underrated as movies get. It's so ambitious and frankly I think it hits the mark despite the critics. You'll see.... Anyway this was most our intro to Vin Diesel. It was just nice to see some cool new monster-based sci fi again. It had been awhile. Clever use of color too for the different suns.
@@IDieHardForever Also probably unfair and unfavorably comparisons to Alien and probably even critics straight out calling it an Alien clone or knockoff. While yeah, that is kinda easy to see the influences, this movie still stands very much on its own, and Riddick is such a cool character and arguably more complex than Vin's usual leading role characters, especially within a certain car-porn franchise. David Twohy's writing and directing is great, he himself having written films like The Fugitive and Waterworld before this. A Perfect Getaway is another fun thriller of his I would recommend as well. And though now, we all know the franchise based around the character, it is still really damn awesome to see Radha Mitchell (who is underrated in this who is essentially the main co-lead, with Riddick starting out as more of a prominent supporting character and slowly earning the leading role as it goes on, especially after Cole Hauser is killed off. Which also makes her death at the end all the more saddening and shocking as well, cause if you didn't know the franchise going in or saw this for the first time back when it came out, you'd think Riddick would be the one to die or even end up sacrificing himself for her at the end, but they cleverly twist it on you and do the exact opposite.
@@jmgonzalez4 The criticism were warranted because they basically changed everything from this movie. It’s not even the same universe basically. So people were expecting something like Pitch Black and got something totally different. It’s like making Alien and for the sequel doing infinity war. It goes that bat shit crazy. They went all the way up to 11.
Chronicles of Riddick should have been something else. Not connected to this universe or Riddick. I was like WTF is this when I saw it in theaters. Would have been good as a stand alone movie and don’t connect it to pitch black or Riddick. I hate that they changed his backstory and why he has those eyes. Completely changed the perception one has of him.
I once asked Claudia Black(Shazza) about her experience during the filming of this. She said it was miserable because they filmed it in the middle of a cold Australian Winter and had to pretend like they were in a scorching hot environment. On top of that they were constantly being sprayed down with water to make them look sweaty.
@@charlesallen2306 Hell yeah he should! I stumbled upon FARSCAPE a minute or two into the premiere episode the night it aired. Ended up becoming one of my favorite TV shows of all time. I ended up getting to know several of the cast members from the show(mainly Ben, Claudia, Gigi, and Virginia) while it was in production, which was how I was able to ask Claudia about filming Pitch Black.
There's an animated film "Dark Fury" that picks up exactly where this one leaves off and then leads to the sequel The Chronicles of Riddick. It's worth a watch before you hit up the next two full films. 🙌🏾 Always a pleasure viewing your reactions!
@@fxbear I got it on a DVD collection of all three films. It also had a lot of world-building material included as extras, as well as two audio journals from bounty hunters tracking Riddick.
@Darkstar yeah definitely not missing anything crucial, but there is a scene that sort of sets up the beginning of Jack's journey... without spoiling it for James.
My favorite too,Pitchblack was under-rated when it came out.I didn't see this at the cinema,on tv I believe,was really surprised how good the film was.
@@powerbadpowerbad I saw it theatrically totally blind as to what it was about, who was in it, etc. because when I got off work the roads were bad due to a snow storm and the theater was across the street, I figured I would give the plows a couple hours to clear the road and it worked out pretty damn great.😂👍
@@jimtatro6550 Cool story,Jim,glad you got to see this good flic,I knew Claudia Black ( the woman with the black hair ) from the sci-fi tv series:Farscape.She is GORGEOUS !!! LOL.
Agreed...I remember a buddy showed it to me one morning while we were getting our smoke on after working 3rd shift at a medical supply warehouse...I was blown away...had never even heard of it before...became a instant fanatic...
I love this movie series. These films became Vin's Passion Projects. He's the only reason they kept making them. The Riddick character is so captivating.
The game was called Escape from Butcher Bay, and it’s pretty good. Pitch Black was the first appearance of Riddick, and there’s two more movies and an anime Segway between PitchBlack and chronicles. I’d say they’re all worth a watch, and the world building is pretty good.
fun fact the game was produced by a company founded by Vin Diesel. Think what you like about the man but the guy was ahead of the game in the early 2000's.
I really like the whole trilogy. I don't know how many people played the video games but they're a prelude to this movie with a lot of backstory to Riddick and how he became this character.
Johns hides his morphine vials inside RED shotgun shells. His actual shotgun shells are BLUE. In the final fight between Johns & Riddick he mistakenly loads a RED shell. Which is why his shotgun doesn't fire ... Lotsa details in this film! :D
"What are these monsters? I'm trying to figure out their anatomy?" Welcome to the alien life of Wayne Barlowe, one of my favorite concept artists of all time! His monsters are crazy creative and I love how he doesn't shy away from making the aliens REALLY Alien. He's usually Guillermo DelToro's go-to creature designer and his illustrated novel Expedition (about a journey to a distant planet to document its life forms) is a must-have.
Sequel to this is Chronicles of Riddick and the third in the trilogy is just called Riddick. The two games are Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena and CoR: Escape from Butcher Bay (I've got them as a bundle for PS3), from the same studio that did the first The Darkness game (based on the Image comic book antihero superhero of the same name). I also have the animated short movie. Love the character, much more than his XXX or F&F characters.
When this movie came out, Vin Diesel wasn't known. I only went to watch it cos I've always been a scifi/adventure/fantasy movie lover. The movie practically had no promotions and no one in the film was well known. So it premiered on a Friday where I live, so I went to watch it, I loved it so much I went to dinner in the food court, then went back to watch it again. I then went in to work later that day and praised the movie to my co-workers. Saturday, I was invited to watch the movie again w/ said coworkers, so I went. Sunday, my cousins and brothers wanted to go and I didn't wanna stay home alone w/ our grandparents so I went again. Basically, I watched the movie 5 times in 1 weekend. And yes, I paid my way each time. Pitch Black ended up staying in theaters for a very long time. It was a surprising success for many, and it achieved it by word-of-mouth alone! Like I said, there was little to no promos for it.
18:29 He is from a different race that is stronger than regular human beings. Basically there was a planet that human beings colonized a long time ago, and that planet had extremely harsh natural conditions, to the point that a lot of people died trying to colonize it. The minority who survived were the stronger among them, and that minority of people, after many generations, ended up evolving certain abilities to adapt to the conditions of the planet. They developed things like stronger muscles and bones to resist the higher gravity of the planet, stronger skin to resist the harsh weather, etc. But what was more characteristic about those people was their strong will, their determination to survive (which makes sense because they descend from the group of human beings who persevered and managed to survive in that environment). That planet was eventually destroyed by a different civilization who had more advanced technology and most of the people died, Riddick is one of the few who survived, but If I remember correctly he is not aware of that because he was a baby when it happened (I could be mistaken about that though). He grew up in poverty and became a criminal, he was raised and spent most of his life in (and escaping out of) prisons (he has escaped many of the most secure prisons). So basically he is the ultimate survivor.
Now you NEED to check out Chronicles of Riddick, so underrated, so amazing, such expansive world building. Riddick is my favorite Vin Diesel characters and just an awesome character in general.
Under everything else, Vin Diesel is a huge nerd. It is my solid belief that Riddick is a character he plays in tabletop roleplaying games. And that's just plain fun to imagine.
@@pat7917 technically 3+1 & 1 or 2 games depending on how you look at them. The movies are in order: Pitch Black, Dark Fury, The Chronicles of Riddick, and Riddick The videogame is The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay and it's a prequel to Pitch Black (it shows how Riddick got his eyes, among other things), they later included it in the sequel The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.
Vin Diesel is a huge D&D fan and he based Riddick on one of his D&D characters. He also played D&D with Judi Dench and Karl Urban whilst they were filming the sequel. This film genuinely came out of nowhere and really catapulted Vin Diesel's career. I think I've only seen overexposure as an environmental effect in a sequence for Star Trek: Nemesis.
Saw this in the Cinema late at night with friends, had no real idea what it was like going in, very happy coming out... Was one of the fist movies that sort of gave a really alien planet look, with different lighting from the 3 suns, where usually it just looks like an Earth but 'not' Earth in most sci fi up to that time, which was much appreciated.
She said she would die for them, and then she did. Too often in movies there is a feeling that a character's growth is wasted if they die, but I think this illustrates that the growth can be meaningful even when they die. In this case, it quite boldly literalizes her arc.
Each of the films has its own aspect that pulls the character of Riddick forward and fleshes him out, building a universe. The scifi element was fantastic for each one. The planets are awesome eye candy.
Just before Johns death he unloaded a shotgun shell that didn’t fire off, that was one of the shells containing his morphine. His addiction literally killed him.
This was supposed to be a low budget B movie. The studios had no expectations for it. It had a budget of only 23 million in 1999 (released in 2000), but earned over 53 million. It was expected to do best in Australia because 3 or 4 of the actors were well known there from previous work they did. Claudia Black had a long running staring role on Far Scape. This movie launched Vin Diesel's career. This became a cult classic. People continue to buy it and watch it even 20+ years later. For those reasons Vin Diesel keeps coming back to this series it would seem. There's a bit of time between installments. Chronicles of Riddick in 2004, Then Riddick in 2013 There's rumor about a 4th installment coming.
You should definitely check out the rest of the series in it's entirety, I doubt you will be disappointed especially if you enjoyed this film. The sequels most certainly helped to further build upon the Riddick universe and to explore the mythos behind Riddick's character in more intricate details. Also I would answer your question James in regards to "what is he?" but I think it's better that you discover that for yourself by watching the sequel films.
Fun fact: this film started out in life as an early draft of Alien 3 - David Twohy came onboard and wrote a script centered around a prison planet wherein the prisoners were being used by Weyland-Yutani for illegal experiments with the xenomorphs. While producers Walter Hill and David Giler liked the script, David Twohy got the sense that the film was going to be plague with creative differences (and he was right), and pulled out of the project. He mostly managed to salvage his own draft of the script; he then took what he salvaged, tweaked it, and started his own independent franchise in the form of Pitch Black - upon a rewatch, there are parallels between Fry and Ripley, as well as Jack and Newt. Had Vincent Ward not been brought on board of the Alien 3 project and decided that Twohy's space prison idea was awful there would have not _been_ a Riddick series.
In some DVD and Blu Ray versions of the movie, it was titled, "The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black." I remember watching this on VHS with my family and we loved it! I have the 20th Anniversary BLU Ray Edition from Arrow Video
Riddick's eyes were not implanted. He had his own original eyes polished so he could see in the dark. I don't exactly know what that means, but that's how he put it. You should watch the sequel. It's called Chronicles of Riddick. It's very good.
This is one of my favorite series. I've binged the entire series multiple times and I hope you react to the other three. I'm a little disappointed I don't get to see your reaction to the part where Zeke shoots the other survivor, thinking he's Riddick, and the camera zooms past him to show Riddick just hanging out and drinking their wine. That part always makes me chuckle. By the way, a lot of your questions about Riddick's physical abilities kinda get answered in later movies.
My favorite in these series. Sequels just tend to make another comic-book-epic story, while this one concentrates on characters and their decisions. How this girl died after she came back for Riddick? And the reason why Riddick wasn't exactly eager to risk his life to come back for the others, he knew they'd leave him if they were in his place. And the effects. Really some otherworldly vibes there
Check out the other 2 sequels in close proximity. I saw them all in the theaters & some of the continuity details had me digging in my memory of the prior films....
Grew up watching the second one the most and then several years ago started watching the first and third ones as well but grew up watching all of them and love them all
You have to react to Chronicles of Riddick. Dont expect the horror/sci-fi aspect in Chronicles that was in Pitch Black. Its just a great movie , awesome characters, creativity and visuals. Cant wait for you to do that one!
"One rule... Stay in the light". Love this movie, still a favorite of mine cause he told then, there's something worse than me out here and I love the reaction @17:05 when you finally see how surrounded they are on all sides. The horror
An amazing movie. The entire atmosphere, cinematography, effects.... it is all incredible. A movie made by people who love film. The dark night scenes with the green lighting when the creatures attack is so beautiful and so laden in pure suspense! Love it, great reaction!
In a way this movie did for darkness what 'Jaws' did for the ocean. I imagine this is how our ancient ancestors felt if they couldn't get a fire going. Kevin Smith once said something about humans not understanding the reality that they could become something's poop.
He was kind of made for this character lol. It's a really cool universe and I love that we get only snippets of his story at a time and not anywhere near all of it in this film. He's also got such a cool code. It's kinda messed up sometimes but it's there and he sticks to it. He clearly formed it out of necessity to survive, and it works so he's not changing it. He's a good anti-hero.
James, this is the first of a quadrilogy. There are three movies and an animated OVA that tell parts of his story. This is one of the rare situations where an actor gains the rights to a character and elevates it to high art. Vin Diesel became so actively involved after this movie that he co-wrote and produced the subsequent films, both of which are really really good. Like, excellent as action drama in contrast to this as scifi horror.
Man I was so excited that someone finally watched this. Let alone one of if not my favorite movie reactor because of your insight and commentary as well the over all chill mood you bring lol. So happy watching this. Now you just gotta watch Chronicles of Riddick and maybe the animated short that connects this movie and Chronicles. Chronicles is one of my favorite scifi movies. I wouldn't say it's one of the best in many areas but it just does things that are so fun for me to watch.
Really glad to see this one come up. It kinda came outta nowhere back when it was released, and Riddick ended up being such an intriguing character that they fleshed out the rest of his lore with a game, and additional movies based on him. Sadly, the others didnt take the kind of artistic risks that this film did, so this stands alone as the most interesting of them.
Saw this in the theater with no idea what it was about or who was in it. By the time the lights went out, I was totally hooked and loving it. I became a Vin Diesel (and David Twohy) fan right then. Thank you for giving the movie some love:)
This film is great, a childhood favorite. The 2 sequels are just as awesome delving deeper into his past with 2 being a grand scale man vs man and 3 being more like pitch black, man vs beast. All of them are great and I can't wait for the 4th movie to come out soon.
They were going to do a roll sci fi trilogy if chronicled but then dropped their plans :( they were going to be in the underverse in the 2nd chronicles movie
I remember renting this DVD from Blockbuster just blind picking random movies to watch when I first saw this. I loved it so much, I hunted down the shops to buy a DVD copy myself.
It was mentioned already, but it's a must that you watch the animated short film, The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury, prior to watching The Chronicles of Riddick. It picks up right after Pitch Black. Also, check out the Unrated Director's Cut of The Chronicles of Riddick, rather than the theatrical version, if possible. It provides more context to various sub plots/character development, and gives an overall better viewing experience. The Chronicles of Riddick was edited down to qualify for a PG-13 rating in theater, but the true representation of the film was meant to be Rated R.
Love this movie. Gotta watch Chronicles know, though! It's not perfect but it's very ambitious and adds a lot of character depth. And once you've seen it, and you go back to watch Pitch Black, there are a few small surprises in there.
Yes the first in the Chronicles of Riddick series, one of my favorite filn franchises, so Pitch Black is the first in the series, then Chronicles of Riddick, CoR: Escape from Butcher Bay, released originally on the original Xbox, serves as prequel and backstory for Riddick prior to the events of the first movie. Love this series!
When I saw this in theaters the line "Did not know who he was fucking with" got a solid cheer! The only other example of a place shot overexposed was in Serenity when they are on a particular planet.
"barren wasteland" yeah, it's called the bush of Australia because that's where most of the scenes were filmed. So that description makes so much sense 😂(if I remember correctly)
Another movie that utilizes overexposure with plot reasons is the 2011 German-Swiss "Hell" ("hell" means "bright" in German) directed by Roland Emmerich, which alone should warrant a viewing.
Duuude! I love this movie! The beginning of Riddick! ALSO, three body problem anyone? Three suns? If you know, you know. Also, the chronicles of Riddick is a good watch if you want more of him and the world. It’s definitely a lot different but Riddick is still basically the same, which is a good thing! I’d love to see a reaction to it.
So the prequel to this is an XBox 360 game called Escape From Butcher Bay. But he lies about how to get the Eye-Shine. As both told in CoR, and shown in EFBB. He actually never meant to get it, but got hurt and knocked out. And when he came to, he realized the Doctor that repaired him had given him the Eye-Shine without telling anyone.
It's kind of awesome how James was almost inspired by the weird imperfections of this movie. I agree with him wholeheartedly - sometimes you can make a film much more memorable by showing things in a less-than-perfect manner.
This entire world is inspired by Vin Diesal's D&D character and his D&D games. Vin Diesal is a hardcore TTRPG nerd, on the set of Chronicles Of Riddick (the sequel film to this) he taught Judi Dench how to play D&D and she now DMs regular sessions for her grandkids as family time.
Never even thought about it being over saturated because of the 3 suns until watching your reaction man. This is why i love your content, Thank you. You really do point out so many things the average viewer never even ponders and its amazing because it adds so much depth and many new layers to the entire viewing experience.
I found out that coyotes make a similar high-pitch "poing" sound, like those aliens do. It's a signaling noise. I believe they use it to communicate when they've made a kill. I heard it in several separate areas around my yard one night and it BOTHERED THE EFF OUTTA ME. Because they sounded EXACTLY like those things. 😂🤣 Took me a long time to determine the source. A couple years later, at a campout, i heard it again, from a whole pack, and i was excited this time. Lol
Hey, James! Great reaction! This movie is what got Vin Diesel popularly known. I saw it five times in a theater and the audience was fully engaged and appropriately responsive each time! I love the twist with the girl masquerading as a boy and the sacrifice of Fry. Keith David is fantastic in this as the Imam. I love how a trinary star system unexpectedly produces a world shrouded in darkness. The nocturnal creatures cannot be indigenous because the skeletal remains of the land leviathans that once inhabited that world would have taken too long to evolve with those creatures periodically stripping the plant clean. The night predators had to have been brought, crashed or dumped on this world quickly devouring all the native fauna! The script by Director David Twohy and the Wheat brothers masterfully has Johns and Riddick cast as hero and villain, respectively, at the start but then level out by the middle and reverse roles at the end! A sleeper hit the winter it came out in 2000!
Omg u really watch underrated movies that are gold and im obsessed w😭😭 every time I tell somebody about pitch black/ riddick i look dumb. Same form many others u selected like tron. Im so excited to watch your view on this !
Really enjoy the color cycles, that they don't give the monsters a silly name, and that things don't go quite as expected. I remember the later films getting super silly and off the rails but this was a great simple small story.
So this film is special to me because, like you, when I saw it for the first time I had NO idea what to expect. Fun story... I helped a friend out when I was in college when this film came out with some video editing. That was back in the day when S-Video was king for freelance projects lol Good old liniar editing. Anyway...he paid me by taking me to see any movie of my choice. We were both film lovers and decided it would be cool to just watch something we didn't know about. We saw the poster for Pitch Black at the theater and were like..."Okay, cool. That looks like a cool supernatural type movie." We bought our tickets, lights wen down in the theater...and the first thing we see in the opening of this movie is...space. lol I was like, "eh...okay....where is this going?" No trailer, no reading up on it...nothing. Blind as f**k viewing lol Loved it. I was so pleasantly surprised :) Hope you enjoyed the flick!
I think overall I like this first movie more than the 2nd but the 2nd does have my favorite scene out of the two movies(trying to outrun the ***) Not realistic but incredibly well constructed and a visual treat.
There's 3 movies and an Animated Short (Dark Fury (Sits between Pitch Black and Chronicles)) that comprises this franchise. Last heard, the Making of the 4th film is still in the works, but there's no set release date.
For other movies playing with lighting, I'm reminded of Sunshine. Not sure if its the exposure they are playing with there, but there a couple of scenes that go wild with what sunlight might, not just look like, but feel like, when you are quite close to the sun.
The game came out after Pitch Black, though it was set before, and explained how he arrived on the ship in Pitch Black. Riddick was never supposed to be a franchise, but Vin loved the character so much he worked hard to get more made.
Lots of risks with this film, on and off set! What do you think?
Want to vote on what I should watch next? Click here! www.patreon.com/jamesvscinema
Have some Breaking Bad tomorrow!
Yeah, this was such a strange film to be made. Low budget, but doesn't FEEL low budget, just well made with what they had to work with.
Love this movie! In '04 Xbox released The Chronicals of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Game was awesome (easily better than this movies' sequals).
Twohy is an old school director.This on is his best imo.
check out Perfume 2006 it will surprise you also.
this is part of a trilogy
I always believed when Riddick was tempting her to leave and she refused his line "how interesting" was genuine surprise. Which indicated his experience and deep distrust of humanity shocked to find a genuinely good person. When died trying to help him the line " not for me" showed his guilt and feeling that he was unworthy of her sacrifice. Then his deliberately killing as many of the creatures as he could in the end showing his anger at her death the first real emotion other than sardonic amusement from this cold calculating killer.
Was gonna like the comment but it was at 69 and I wasn't going to ruin it.
it actually makes sense for his story arch considering Chronicles of Riddick. He needed to meet her to become who he does.
His line of 'That's interesting.' is more about her saying early in the film that 'I'm not going to die for them!' before throwing the switch to dump the passenger compartment. Riddick was awake and heard this. Then got to watch as she changed her tune at the end. He could tell she was being completely honest in that she would die for them, the people she was going to kill in their sleep just a couple days before.
@@valashar5313 honestly would you rather go in your sleep, or die by those things
To shine some light here from what I’ve gathered, he did not start out as a killer but someone who became full of rage for unknown reason maybe b/c he couldn’t remember much of his own past or what happened to his people and was labelled a cold blooded killer as he continued killing all the bounty hunters (MERCS) who were after him whether dead or alive but more so alive. THE ASSUMED “COLD BLOODED KILLER” LABEL WOULD’VE BECOME TRUE, IF HE HAD LEFT THEM TO DIE AT THE END BUT SHE CONVINCED HIM AND HONESTLY I THINK AFTER SAVING THAT THE YOUNG GIRL IT SOMEHOW SHOWED HIS REAL SELF IN A WAY.
Chronicles of Riddick is the direct successor to Pitch Black and is MUST SEE. The art direction and design of the film is unlike anything other scifi movie. Always reminds me of Warhammer 40K for those who know what that is.
The production design of Chronicles is stunning.
@@danielallen3454 I didn't know that. Thanks! Gives me something new to look up
best of them
Unrated only. The theatrical version is ass.
Pls continue the riddick movie series
Chronicles of Riddick is about as underrated as movies get. It's so ambitious and frankly I think it hits the mark despite the critics. You'll see.... Anyway this was most our intro to Vin Diesel. It was just nice to see some cool new monster-based sci fi again. It had been awhile. Clever use of color too for the different suns.
Yeah, honestly what were the primary criticisms?
@@jmgonzalez4 I don't remember too precisely except the usual critic BS like "overblown" and "convoluted".
@@IDieHardForever Also probably unfair and unfavorably comparisons to Alien and probably even critics straight out calling it an Alien clone or knockoff. While yeah, that is kinda easy to see the influences, this movie still stands very much on its own, and Riddick is such a cool character and arguably more complex than Vin's usual leading role characters, especially within a certain car-porn franchise. David Twohy's writing and directing is great, he himself having written films like The Fugitive and Waterworld before this. A Perfect Getaway is another fun thriller of his I would recommend as well.
And though now, we all know the franchise based around the character, it is still really damn awesome to see Radha Mitchell (who is underrated in this who is essentially the main co-lead, with Riddick starting out as more of a prominent supporting character and slowly earning the leading role as it goes on, especially after Cole Hauser is killed off. Which also makes her death at the end all the more saddening and shocking as well, cause if you didn't know the franchise going in or saw this for the first time back when it came out, you'd think Riddick would be the one to die or even end up sacrificing himself for her at the end, but they cleverly twist it on you and do the exact opposite.
@@jmgonzalez4 The criticism were warranted because they basically changed everything from this movie. It’s not even the same universe basically. So people were expecting something like Pitch Black and got something totally different.
It’s like making Alien and for the sequel doing infinity war. It goes that bat shit crazy. They went all the way up to 11.
Chronicles of Riddick should have been something else. Not connected to this universe or Riddick. I was like WTF is this when I saw it in theaters. Would have been good as a stand alone movie and don’t connect it to pitch black or Riddick.
I hate that they changed his backstory and why he has those eyes. Completely changed the perception one has of him.
I once asked Claudia Black(Shazza) about her experience during the filming of this. She said it was miserable because they filmed it in the middle of a cold Australian Winter and had to pretend like they were in a scorching hot environment. On top of that they were constantly being sprayed down with water to make them look sweaty.
James should start the Farscape series!
@@charlesallen2306 Hell yeah he should! I stumbled upon FARSCAPE a minute or two into the premiere episode the night it aired. Ended up becoming one of my favorite TV shows of all time. I ended up getting to know several of the cast members from the show(mainly Ben, Claudia, Gigi, and Virginia) while it was in production, which was how I was able to ask Claudia about filming Pitch Black.
Lucky you for meeting her. I've only met one cast member of Farscape directly, the guy who played Braca, Scorpious's lieutenant.
@@darkstar3116 What about Morrigan? :)
There's an animated film "Dark Fury" that picks up exactly where this one leaves off and then leads to the sequel The Chronicles of Riddick. It's worth a watch before you hit up the next two full films. 🙌🏾
Always a pleasure viewing your reactions!
Could have saved myself some typing if I'd spotted this first. Dark Fruy is great.
Where can you get dark fury other than paying TH-cam?
@@fxbear I got it on a DVD collection of all three films. It also had a lot of world-building material included as extras, as well as two audio journals from bounty hunters tracking Riddick.
I haven't watched Dark Fury in too long, going to rewatch it myself next!
@Darkstar yeah definitely not missing anything crucial, but there is a scene that sort of sets up the beginning of Jack's journey... without spoiling it for James.
I've seen this movie so many times I can nearly recite all of Riddick's lines. Can't wait for this reaction.
Hyped to hear man, enjoy!
one of my favorites is when he repeats "Gonna be late to the party." to Jack, but slyly leaves off the "boy."
@@jean-paulaudette9246 "missin' the party, come on!"
@@JamesVSCinema you gonna get back into these soon?? I hope!
This is still my favorite Vin Deisel movie, I like the other Riddick films but this one came out of nowhere back in the day. Great movie.
My favorite too,Pitchblack was under-rated when it came out.I didn't see this at the cinema,on tv I believe,was really surprised how good the film was.
@@powerbadpowerbad I saw it theatrically totally blind as to what it was about, who was in it, etc. because when I got off work the roads were bad due to a snow storm and the theater was across the street, I figured I would give the plows a couple hours to clear the road and it worked out pretty damn great.😂👍
@@jimtatro6550 Cool story,Jim,glad you got to see this good flic,I knew Claudia Black ( the woman with the black hair ) from the sci-fi tv series:Farscape.She is GORGEOUS !!! LOL.
Agreed...I remember a buddy showed it to me one morning while we were getting our smoke on after working 3rd shift at a medical supply warehouse...I was blown away...had never even heard of it before...became a instant fanatic...
@@powerbadpowerbad She's awesome in Farscape indeed.
I love this movie series. These films became Vin's Passion Projects. He's the only reason they kept making them. The Riddick character is so captivating.
The game was called Escape from Butcher Bay, and it’s pretty good. Pitch Black was the first appearance of Riddick, and there’s two more movies and an anime Segway between PitchBlack and chronicles. I’d say they’re all worth a watch, and the world building is pretty good.
fun fact the game was produced by a company founded by Vin Diesel. Think what you like about the man but the guy was ahead of the game in the early 2000's.
There was also an anime I think between chronicles and Riddick
I really like the whole trilogy.
I don't know how many people played the video games but they're a prelude to this movie with a lot of backstory to Riddick and how he became this character.
I heard the game is legitimately good.
Me and my brother played escape from butcher bay so much. A classic from the first gen systems.
Surprisingly excellent games.
@@Neat0_o 3rd gen
You should watch the animation.
Johns hides his morphine vials inside RED shotgun shells.
His actual shotgun shells are BLUE.
In the final fight between Johns & Riddick he mistakenly loads a RED shell.
Which is why his shotgun doesn't fire ...
Lotsa details in this film! :D
1st in the series is Pitch Black. Chronicles of Riddick comes later and takes a differnt tone.
"What are these monsters? I'm trying to figure out their anatomy?"
Welcome to the alien life of Wayne Barlowe, one of my favorite concept artists of all time! His monsters are crazy creative and I love how he doesn't shy away from making the aliens REALLY Alien. He's usually Guillermo DelToro's go-to creature designer and his illustrated novel Expedition (about a journey to a distant planet to document its life forms) is a must-have.
Sequel to this is Chronicles of Riddick and the third in the trilogy is just called Riddick. The two games are Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena and CoR: Escape from Butcher Bay (I've got them as a bundle for PS3), from the same studio that did the first The Darkness game (based on the Image comic book antihero superhero of the same name). I also have the animated short movie. Love the character, much more than his XXX or F&F characters.
Chronicles of Riddick is one of the most underrated sci fi flicks!
Johns is everyone's favorite character in the Yellowstone show, Rip. Everytime he is on screen in the tv show I can't help seeing him in this film.
"chronicles of riddick" and "riddick" are both well worth ypur time, its a real nice little trilogy!
This movie was astonishing on the big screen. The crash scene left me on the edge of my seat and I don't think I ever sat back the entire time.
When this movie came out, Vin Diesel wasn't known. I only went to watch it cos I've always been a scifi/adventure/fantasy movie lover. The movie practically had no promotions and no one in the film was well known.
So it premiered on a Friday where I live, so I went to watch it, I loved it so much I went to dinner in the food court, then went back to watch it again. I then went in to work later that day and praised the movie to my co-workers. Saturday, I was invited to watch the movie again w/ said coworkers, so I went. Sunday, my cousins and brothers wanted to go and I didn't wanna stay home alone w/ our grandparents so I went again.
Basically, I watched the movie 5 times in 1 weekend. And yes, I paid my way each time.
Pitch Black ended up staying in theaters for a very long time. It was a surprising success for many, and it achieved it by word-of-mouth alone! Like I said, there was little to no promos for it.
What an underrated movie. The captain has a great character arc, as does Riddick. I always loved this movie. It has a unique style all its own.
18:29 He is from a different race that is stronger than regular human beings. Basically there was a planet that human beings colonized a long time ago, and that planet had extremely harsh natural conditions, to the point that a lot of people died trying to colonize it. The minority who survived were the stronger among them, and that minority of people, after many generations, ended up evolving certain abilities to adapt to the conditions of the planet. They developed things like stronger muscles and bones to resist the higher gravity of the planet, stronger skin to resist the harsh weather, etc. But what was more characteristic about those people was their strong will, their determination to survive (which makes sense because they descend from the group of human beings who persevered and managed to survive in that environment). That planet was eventually destroyed by a different civilization who had more advanced technology and most of the people died, Riddick is one of the few who survived, but If I remember correctly he is not aware of that because he was a baby when it happened (I could be mistaken about that though). He grew up in poverty and became a criminal, he was raised and spent most of his life in (and escaping out of) prisons (he has escaped many of the most secure prisons). So basically he is the ultimate survivor.
Now you NEED to check out Chronicles of Riddick, so underrated, so amazing, such expansive world building. Riddick is my favorite Vin Diesel characters and just an awesome character in general.
Under everything else, Vin Diesel is a huge nerd. It is my solid belief that Riddick is a character he plays in tabletop roleplaying games. And that's just plain fun to imagine.
I love this trilogy so much! Never stopped hoping they'd make another one
Same
Trilogy… I thought there was only two movies? Looks like I know what I’m doing for movie night!
@@pat7917 technically 3+1 & 1 or 2 games depending on how you look at them.
The movies are in order: Pitch Black, Dark Fury, The Chronicles of Riddick, and Riddick
The videogame is The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay and it's a prequel to Pitch Black (it shows how Riddick got his eyes, among other things), they later included it in the sequel The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.
Vin Diesel is a huge D&D fan and he based Riddick on one of his D&D characters. He also played D&D with Judi Dench and Karl Urban whilst they were filming the sequel.
This film genuinely came out of nowhere and really catapulted Vin Diesel's career.
I think I've only seen overexposure as an environmental effect in a sequence for Star Trek: Nemesis.
James, as you travel through the Pitch Black/Riddick Underverse remember "You Keep What You Kill."
Saw this in the Cinema late at night with friends, had no real idea what it was like going in, very happy coming out... Was one of the fist movies that sort of gave a really alien planet look, with different lighting from the 3 suns, where usually it just looks like an Earth but 'not' Earth in most sci fi up to that time, which was much appreciated.
Was a great surprise when I saw this. Great, well made film.
Riddick is my guilty pleasure. It is like the mall ninja of franchises.
No way! I'm so stoked you reacted to one of my childhood faves that would come on HBO. Vin Diesel became family with this one!
The Pacifier movie was the first image that popped into my head LOL, when you mentioned Vin Diesel being a family man.
She said she would die for them, and then she did. Too often in movies there is a feeling that a character's growth is wasted if they die, but I think this illustrates that the growth can be meaningful even when they die. In this case, it quite boldly literalizes her arc.
Each of the films has its own aspect that pulls the character of Riddick forward and fleshes him out, building a universe. The scifi element was fantastic for each one. The planets are awesome eye candy.
Great choice. This one's a classic.
"Did not know who was f___n wit" LOL
Just before Johns death he unloaded a shotgun shell that didn’t fire off, that was one of the shells containing his morphine. His addiction literally killed him.
This was supposed to be a low budget B movie. The studios had no expectations for it. It had a budget of only 23 million in 1999 (released in 2000), but earned over 53 million. It was expected to do best in Australia because 3 or 4 of the actors were well known there from previous work they did. Claudia Black had a long running staring role on Far Scape. This movie launched Vin Diesel's career. This became a cult classic. People continue to buy it and watch it even 20+ years later. For those reasons Vin Diesel keeps coming back to this series it would seem. There's a bit of time between installments. Chronicles of Riddick in 2004, Then Riddick in 2013 There's rumor about a 4th installment coming.
The Chronicles of Riddick is amazing
You should definitely check out the rest of the series in it's entirety, I doubt you will be disappointed especially if you enjoyed this film. The sequels most certainly helped to further build upon the Riddick universe and to explore the mythos behind Riddick's character in more intricate details. Also I would answer your question James in regards to "what is he?" but I think it's better that you discover that for yourself by watching the sequel films.
Its* entirety.
@@Atlas_Redux You're a stickler for grammar I see. Appreciate the help. 🙏
Fun fact: this film started out in life as an early draft of Alien 3 - David Twohy came onboard and wrote a script centered around a prison planet wherein the prisoners were being used by Weyland-Yutani for illegal experiments with the xenomorphs. While producers Walter Hill and David Giler liked the script, David Twohy got the sense that the film was going to be plague with creative differences (and he was right), and pulled out of the project. He mostly managed to salvage his own draft of the script; he then took what he salvaged, tweaked it, and started his own independent franchise in the form of Pitch Black - upon a rewatch, there are parallels between Fry and Ripley, as well as Jack and Newt.
Had Vincent Ward not been brought on board of the Alien 3 project and decided that Twohy's space prison idea was awful there would have not _been_ a Riddick series.
Finally!!! Someone did this movie... Thank you. Great movie. Great reaction.
In some DVD and Blu Ray versions of the movie, it was titled, "The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black."
I remember watching this on VHS with my family and we loved it!
I have the 20th Anniversary BLU Ray Edition from Arrow Video
Not clicked this fast in a while. Love it
It cracks me up how few people realize the actor that plays the drug addict law man in this movie is the same guy that plays Rip on Yellowstone.
It's a nice thematic sci-fi film. Very enjoyable on a first time watch.
Riddick's eyes were not implanted. He had his own original eyes polished so he could see in the dark. I don't exactly know what that means, but that's how he put it. You should watch the sequel. It's called Chronicles of Riddick. It's very good.
This is one of my favorite series. I've binged the entire series multiple times and I hope you react to the other three. I'm a little disappointed I don't get to see your reaction to the part where Zeke shoots the other survivor, thinking he's Riddick, and the camera zooms past him to show Riddick just hanging out and drinking their wine. That part always makes me chuckle. By the way, a lot of your questions about Riddick's physical abilities kinda get answered in later movies.
And the video game.
I saw this in the theater when it first came out. And it was completely underrated when it was first released. One of my most favorite monster movies.
My dad loved this movie and its sequels(the ones he got to see anyway) so it has a special place in my heart anyway, but it's also a pretty fun time.
My dad loved these too. These were our bonding time movies.
My favorite in these series. Sequels just tend to make another comic-book-epic story, while this one concentrates on characters and their decisions. How this girl died after she came back for Riddick? And the reason why Riddick wasn't exactly eager to risk his life to come back for the others, he knew they'd leave him if they were in his place. And the effects. Really some otherworldly vibes there
Check out the other 2 sequels in close proximity. I saw them all in the theaters & some of the continuity details had me digging in my memory of the prior films....
Grew up watching the second one the most and then several years ago started watching the first and third ones as well but grew up watching all of them and love them all
You have to react to Chronicles of Riddick. Dont expect the horror/sci-fi aspect in Chronicles that was in Pitch Black. Its just a great movie , awesome characters, creativity and visuals. Cant wait for you to do that one!
"One rule... Stay in the light".
Love this movie, still a favorite of mine cause he told then, there's something worse than me out here and I love the reaction @17:05 when you finally see how surrounded they are on all sides. The horror
An amazing movie. The entire atmosphere, cinematography, effects.... it is all incredible. A movie made by people who love film. The dark night scenes with the green lighting when the creatures attack is so beautiful and so laden in pure suspense! Love it, great reaction!
In a way this movie did for darkness what 'Jaws' did for the ocean. I imagine this is how our ancient ancestors felt if they couldn't get a fire going. Kevin Smith once said something about humans not understanding the reality that they could become something's poop.
He was kind of made for this character lol. It's a really cool universe and I love that we get only snippets of his story at a time and not anywhere near all of it in this film. He's also got such a cool code. It's kinda messed up sometimes but it's there and he sticks to it. He clearly formed it out of necessity to survive, and it works so he's not changing it. He's a good anti-hero.
Hes been called Conan in Space.
James, this is the first of a quadrilogy. There are three movies and an animated OVA that tell parts of his story. This is one of the rare situations where an actor gains the rights to a character and elevates it to high art. Vin Diesel became so actively involved after this movie that he co-wrote and produced the subsequent films, both of which are really really good. Like, excellent as action drama in contrast to this as scifi horror.
Man I was so excited that someone finally watched this. Let alone one of if not my favorite movie reactor because of your insight and commentary as well the over all chill mood you bring lol. So happy watching this. Now you just gotta watch Chronicles of Riddick and maybe the animated short that connects this movie and Chronicles. Chronicles is one of my favorite scifi movies. I wouldn't say it's one of the best in many areas but it just does things that are so fun for me to watch.
Really glad to see this one come up. It kinda came outta nowhere back when it was released, and Riddick ended up being such an intriguing character that they fleshed out the rest of his lore with a game, and additional movies based on him. Sadly, the others didnt take the kind of artistic risks that this film did, so this stands alone as the most interesting of them.
It surprised and disappointed me that she died so close to the end, also. But I appreciate that it wasn't predictable.
Nice selection, James. I enjoyed this in the theater and a few times since, as well as its follow-up movies. I hope you also like it.
I've been waiting for this reaction! This series is underappreciated.
Saw this in the theater with no idea what it was about or who was in it. By the time the lights went out, I was totally hooked and loving it. I became a Vin Diesel (and David Twohy) fan right then.
Thank you for giving the movie some love:)
CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK! 🔥
This film is great, a childhood favorite. The 2 sequels are just as awesome delving deeper into his past with 2 being a grand scale man vs man and 3 being more like pitch black, man vs beast. All of them are great and I can't wait for the 4th movie to come out soon.
They were going to do a roll sci fi trilogy if chronicled but then dropped their plans :( they were going to be in the underverse in the 2nd chronicles movie
I remember renting this DVD from Blockbuster just blind picking random movies to watch when I first saw this. I loved it so much, I hunted down the shops to buy a DVD copy myself.
It was mentioned already, but it's a must that you watch the animated short film, The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury, prior to watching The Chronicles of Riddick. It picks up right after Pitch Black. Also, check out the Unrated Director's Cut of The Chronicles of Riddick, rather than the theatrical version, if possible. It provides more context to various sub plots/character development, and gives an overall better viewing experience. The Chronicles of Riddick was edited down to qualify for a PG-13 rating in theater, but the true representation of the film was meant to be Rated R.
Love this movie. Gotta watch Chronicles know, though! It's not perfect but it's very ambitious and adds a lot of character depth. And once you've seen it, and you go back to watch Pitch Black, there are a few small surprises in there.
Yes the first in the Chronicles of Riddick series, one of my favorite filn franchises, so Pitch Black is the first in the series, then Chronicles of Riddick, CoR: Escape from Butcher Bay, released originally on the original Xbox, serves as prequel and backstory for Riddick prior to the events of the first movie. Love this series!
Been a while since ive commented on your videos, but just wanted to say i still appreciate your positivity. Its needed in this world. Stay cool.
I fell in love with Vin Diesel as a teen because of this movie 🤣🤣🤣
Loved these movies too for the shots...Great looking movie! Hope you do the sequel!
When I saw this in theaters the line "Did not know who he was fucking with" got a solid cheer!
The only other example of a place shot overexposed was in Serenity when they are on a particular planet.
One of my favorite movies of the warly 2000s. It was genuinely original and stylish.
Bro I forgot about this movie!! I’m SO happy you did this the whole series is 🔥🔥🔥 even the animated stuff. You’re dig these my man👍🏿
"barren wasteland" yeah, it's called the bush of Australia because that's where most of the scenes were filmed. So that description makes so much sense 😂(if I remember correctly)
You gotta watch the chronicles of riddick next! It’s EVEN BETTER and a direct sequel
Another movie that utilizes overexposure with plot reasons is the 2011 German-Swiss "Hell" ("hell" means "bright" in German) directed by Roland Emmerich, which alone should warrant a viewing.
There's a boss video game that gives some background to riddick and his eyes.
Duuude! I love this movie! The beginning of Riddick! ALSO, three body problem anyone? Three suns? If you know, you know. Also, the chronicles of Riddick is a good watch if you want more of him and the world. It’s definitely a lot different but Riddick is still basically the same, which is a good thing! I’d love to see a reaction to it.
Oh man, you're in for a TREAT! I love all three Riddick movies, for very different reasons. I love your commentary so much.
So the prequel to this is an XBox 360 game called Escape From Butcher Bay.
But he lies about how to get the Eye-Shine. As both told in CoR, and shown in EFBB.
He actually never meant to get it, but got hurt and knocked out. And when he came to, he realized the Doctor that repaired him had given him the Eye-Shine without telling anyone.
Chronicles Of RIDDICK(2004) and RIDDICK(2013) are also good. Plus, I'm really happy you're checking out this underrated franchise
“All but the primitive side, the animal side. No wonder i’m still awake.” I love this movie so much!!!
It's kind of awesome how James was almost inspired by the weird imperfections of this movie. I agree with him wholeheartedly - sometimes you can make a film much more memorable by showing things in a less-than-perfect manner.
This entire world is inspired by Vin Diesal's D&D character and his D&D games. Vin Diesal is a hardcore TTRPG nerd, on the set of Chronicles Of Riddick (the sequel film to this) he taught Judi Dench how to play D&D and she now DMs regular sessions for her grandkids as family time.
Never even thought about it being over saturated because of the 3 suns until watching your reaction man. This is why i love your content, Thank you. You really do point out so many things the average viewer never even ponders and its amazing because it adds so much depth and many new layers to the entire viewing experience.
I found out that coyotes make a similar high-pitch "poing" sound, like those aliens do. It's a signaling noise. I believe they use it to communicate when they've made a kill. I heard it in several separate areas around my yard one night and it
BOTHERED THE EFF OUTTA ME.
Because they sounded EXACTLY like those things.
😂🤣
Took me a long time to determine the source.
A couple years later, at a campout, i heard it again, from a whole pack, and i was excited this time. Lol
Hey, James!
Great reaction! This movie is what got Vin Diesel popularly known.
I saw it five times in a theater and the audience was fully engaged and appropriately responsive each time!
I love the twist with the girl masquerading as a boy and the sacrifice of Fry.
Keith David is fantastic in this as the Imam.
I love how a trinary star system unexpectedly produces a world shrouded in darkness.
The nocturnal creatures cannot be indigenous because the skeletal remains of the land leviathans that once inhabited that world would have taken too long to evolve with those creatures periodically stripping the plant clean. The night predators had to have been brought, crashed or dumped on this world quickly devouring all the native fauna!
The script by Director David Twohy and the Wheat brothers masterfully has Johns and Riddick cast as hero and villain, respectively, at the start but then level out by the middle and reverse roles at the end!
A sleeper hit the winter it came out in 2000!
Omg u really watch underrated movies that are gold and im obsessed w😭😭 every time I tell somebody about pitch black/ riddick i look dumb. Same form many others u selected like tron. Im so excited to watch your view on this !
I saw a rumor somewhere that Riddick was Vin Diesel’s longtime D&D character, and the Riddick movies are basically his OC passion projects.
Yoooo pls do the rest of this series you can't go wrong they're so good !!
Really enjoy the color cycles, that they don't give the monsters a silly name, and that things don't go quite as expected. I remember the later films getting super silly and off the rails but this was a great simple small story.
one of my favorite movies..very cool rewatching it with you. :)🙂
So this film is special to me because, like you, when I saw it for the first time I had NO idea what to expect. Fun story... I helped a friend out when I was in college when this film came out with some video editing. That was back in the day when S-Video was king for freelance projects lol Good old liniar editing. Anyway...he paid me by taking me to see any movie of my choice. We were both film lovers and decided it would be cool to just watch something we didn't know about. We saw the poster for Pitch Black at the theater and were like..."Okay, cool. That looks like a cool supernatural type movie." We bought our tickets, lights wen down in the theater...and the first thing we see in the opening of this movie is...space. lol I was like, "eh...okay....where is this going?"
No trailer, no reading up on it...nothing. Blind as f**k viewing lol Loved it. I was so pleasantly surprised :) Hope you enjoyed the flick!
The third one, Riddick...is a real mind blower. And it has Katee "Starbuck" Sackhoff 😊😊😊
I think overall I like this first movie more than the 2nd but the 2nd does have my favorite scene out of the two movies(trying to outrun the ***) Not realistic but incredibly well constructed and a visual treat.
There's 3 movies and an Animated Short (Dark Fury (Sits between Pitch Black and Chronicles)) that comprises this franchise. Last heard, the Making of the 4th film is still in the works, but there's no set release date.
For other movies playing with lighting, I'm reminded of Sunshine. Not sure if its the exposure they are playing with there, but there a couple of scenes that go wild with what sunlight might, not just look like, but feel like, when you are quite close to the sun.
'Snap, crackle, pop, I'm free' had me ROLLING!!!
The game came out after Pitch Black, though it was set before, and explained how he arrived on the ship in Pitch Black. Riddick was never supposed to be a franchise, but Vin loved the character so much he worked hard to get more made.