Despite being a fan of the series, I’m not entirely looking forward to the next installment in The Chronicles of Riddick.

The series started off with Pitch Black (2000), a survival story about about space travelers marooned on a deadly desert world. The movie was okay but not great. There really wasn’t much of a plot and it was only Vin Diesel’s on-screen charisma that made it watchable.

The second installment, which few people saw (or even heard of), is a short (35 min) animation called Dark Fury (2004). It was voiced by many of the same actors from the first film, including Diesel as Riddick. It covers the time between the first and second movies, showing what happened to Riddick, Jack, and Imam after they leave the desert world. It provides some continuity and back story that the first movie lacked.

The third installment, The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), was definitely a step forward. It delivered good action scenes, beautiful sets and visual effects, and a comprehensive storyline. This one got me hooked on the series. The introduction of the Underverse really opens up the plot and makes it much more appealing than Pitch Black.

Unfortunately, it appears that the upcoming movie, Riddick (2013), will revert back to the overly simplistic plot of Pitch Black. All we see in the previews is Riddick escaping(?) from mercenaries and killing large creatures. That sounds more like Pitch Black than a new chapter in the story. All action and no plot was fine for the first film, but it no longer satisfies. We need the story to move forward. There are questions to be answered.

For example, the last film ended with Riddick killing the Lord Marshall and assuming leadership of the Necromongers. How, then, does he end up captive in a merc ship on a barren desert planet…again? What did he do with his legion? Where are the Necromongers?

Those details aside, there are two questions I need answered for this story to be complete: (1) Will Riddick ever visit the Underverse? and (2) Will we ever see Furya restored and his people begin to flourish again? I know that he’s supposed to be one of the last Furyans, but no one’s sure. They have to finish out the story. You can’t build up a narrative in the second installment, then disregard it completely in the third. That isn’t storytelling.

Vin Diesel, in a recent interview, stated that he also has these same questions. That’s good to know. It’s always a plus for me when the actors generate true interest in the stories they bring to life.

In The Fast and the Furious, Brian O’Conner is an LAPD officer. At the end of the movie, he loses his job because lets Toretto go.

In 2 Fast 2 Furious, O’Conner is not cop, but works for US Customs. At the end of the movie he is back to being a civilian.

In Fast & Furious, O’Conner is now and FBI agent (not sure when that happened), but his supervisor at the agency says he was lucky to be reinstated. Reinstated? When was O’Conner ever an FBI agent to begin with? By the end of the move, you guessed it, he loses his job and becomes a civilian again.

In Fast Five, O’Conner, Dom, and Mia have a run in with DEA agents aboard a train. Yes, he’s a civilian.

In Fast and Furious 6, O’Conner and Dom team ip with Hobbs in DSS (Diplomatic Security Services – the law enforcement arm of the Dept. of State)…so they’re kind of deputized as federal agents. End of the movie? Just a civilian, but at least in the government’s good graces.

Isn’t all this agency switching a little much? At this rate, by the end of the franchise, O’Conner will have worked for or with every branch of law enforcement at both local and federal levels.

I really hope they stop making these movies before we see Brian O’Conner: Mall Cop.

In the Harry Potter stories, Hermione falls in love with Ron and fans have repeatedly asked…why? Ron is dopey, unsure of himself, and nowhere near being in Hermione’s league. Still, she does fall for him…and here’s my take on why.


One, Hermione’s first emotional encounter with a boy was with Ron. In the first movie, Ron angers her after she tries to help him with his levitation spell. He makes a joke about her in front of other students and she overhears…storming off to cry in the girl’s bathroom. Although the she feels horrible, it is her first emotional connection with a boy.

Two, the first person to ever save her was also Ron. In the same bathroom, only a few hours later, Hermione confronts a troll that nearly smashes her to bits in the stalls. Harry and Ron enter and begin to do what they can to help. As Harry becomes captured, Ron pulls out his wand and, listening to Hermione’s advice, incapacitates the troll with his own club. In doing so, Ron shows that not only is he capable of being brave when he needs to be, for her, but also that the two of them can work together to surmount any danger.

From that point on, Hermione never looked at another boy.

I have always been a late bloomer, socially and culturally speaking. I often find myself replaying events in my mind that happened years ago, only to say…oh, now I see what I missed.

For example, I often don’t like music until after years after it goes off the radio. My sense of fashion is at least five years behind. And I was the last person I knew to get a cellphone or send a text. I have yet to understand why Facebook and Twitter are so popular.

The same holds true for Star Wars. People have loved this movie for decades, organizing fan clubs, attending sci-fi conventions, and writing numerous fan fiction novels in honor of Lucas’s epic work. It is part of our culture.

But I never got it. I never understood why everyone was so impressed with Mark Hamill or cheesy special effects or a fairly weak story line. Star Trek, on the other hand, offered a much more developed writing style that yielded thought-provoking plots and characters that you could actually identify with. Why did everyone like Star Wars?

I now believe that it’s something they all saw that I did not.


A few years ago I purchased the Star Wars DVD box set (Episodes I-VI) and have watched them all many times. At first it was just for the sounds and visual effects (which have been seriously upgraded over the last 30 years). After all, Skywalker Studios is almost unbeatable when it comes to audio-video editing. I mean, honestly, who doesn’t love the sound of a light-saber? But I quickly realized that there is a much deeper story than what I initially gleaned.

The first movie back in 1977 took a chance with the American audience. Star Wars was really the first sci-fi movie to make a serious profit in theaters. There was a delicate balance that Lucas had to walk between action, story, and audiences not steeped in sci-fi culture. How far could Lucas go before he lost the audience’s interest?

As such, the first movie was shy on plot details and back story, which is why I was never impressed. When the second and third installments came out, Lucas delivered more depth to the characters, but by that time I had lost my appreciation.

Since then, Lucas has become a legend and audiences have become experts in sci-fi lore. If movies like The Matrix and Jurassic Park could boast massive box office numbers, Lucas should have no qualms about how far he could go with Star Wars.

And he didn’t. In Episodes I-III, Lucas finally provides the entire story…and something at the core was revealed to me. This movie is not about Luke…not at all. It’s about Anakin/Vader. It always has been.

This sits well with me. Not only is Anakin a much more interesting character (compared to Luke, the whiny little farmboy), but Hayden Christensen is a much better actor than Mark Hamill. You can really see the inner turmoil on Hayden’s face in Episodes II and III. Hamill never showed a single emotion in IV, V, or VI. I’m sure he tried, but he failed miserably.

We see Anakin go from momma’s little boy, to husband and father-to-be, to dark evil overlord, and back to proud papa. What did Luke do during his trilogy? He went from cocky little know-it-all to cocky older know-it-all. Not a great transformation.

In the end, Star Wars is really a tragic love story. Despite all that happens throughout the six movies, it really boils down to this…all Anakin ever wanted was his mother and a girl who loved him. Everything wrong he did, he did for them…out of love. His path to the Dark Side was solely caused by the death of his mother and the fear of losing his wife. His love caused his agony. And in the end, it was his love for his son that turned him back.

I can now truly appreciate Lucas’s genius in transforming a Greek tragedy into a modern, action-packed sci-fi film. I can’t wait until the Blu-ray box set arrives in September (which I already have on pre-order).

Thanks, George!