Riddick

Riddick, the character portrayed by actor Vin Diesel in the movie Pitch Black gets a small amount of redemption in The Chronicles of Riddick which is now available on DVD. [Warning: Spoilers on the latter follow.]

I seem to remember most of the SF critics panning TCoR, which is always a signal to me to definitely see it, as I never agree with those people. And I'm not sorry I did; Vin Diesel is one of my favorite actors and he did not disappoint. Also, the visuals from the movie are unusual and pretty awesome.

I guess what bothers me on the morning after seeing it is the redemption aspect. Riddick as an unrepentant murderer worked. Riddick being given a secret history and a Christ-like role in saving the universe simply didn't. I didn't need excuses for Riddick. I didn't need him sanitized. I accepted him as a murderer, because what he did in Pitch Black was realistic and yet balanced the ugliness and violence of his crimes without excusing them. If he truly needed some sort of redemption, I felt he found it in the first movie.

I took a deep interest in Riddick due to a character I've been wrestling with for six years, whose book I sold this spring and will likely be the third Darkyn novel, Darkness Has No Need. My character is a murderer. He is completely unrepentant. I have no plans to redeem him, as redemption does not apply to him. Neither do nearly all of the other rules by which we live. Thus seeing TCoR was good for me, not only for the enjoyment factor, but to see where I don't want to go.