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Chronicles Of Riddick

© James C. Hess

Pedantic.

I was recently asked why it is I don't reveal my actual age when asked for it. There are reasons for why this reluctance on my part exists. One, of course, is a measure of vanity. Another is because I want to see how close people can guess my age, based on my appearance from one day to the next: If I shave close I have been taken for as young as eighteen or nineteen. If I don't shave, a curious bit of light colored hair shows on one side of my chin--white? gray? blonde?--and I am taken for being in my mid-thirties.

Then there is the academic reasoning for not providing my actual age: If people knew my actual age they might go to demonstrate a certain prejudice towards me: In the United States the older a person is the less respect they tend to merit. Just ask President George W. Bush.

But in the end, I confess, I like to see the expression revelation of my actual age provokes, because it goes to prove a point for me, again and again:

Things are rarely, if ever, what they seem.

In the movies, more so.

In the movie "Chronicles Of Riddick", in the opening moments, there is a character named Aereon, who effectively says the same thing, but with different motives and intentions: In normal times, evil should be fought by good, but in times like this, well, it should be fought by another kind of evil.

Another kind of evil? What does that mean? What should it mean? In order to understand you need to do two things: Be willing to sit through "Chronicles Of Riddick" without making snide remarks and be willing to believe Vin Diesel, who plays Richard B. Riddick, is more than an action star in the making: He is also a classically tragic figure within a futuristic battle between a fascist and a fascist master race.

If you can do these two things then you can achieve what may otherwise be the impossible: Make "Chronicles Of Riddick" a cult film by attending, and come to understand certain things about people in general:

They will accept almost anything, they will believe almost anything, just so long as it is presented in a way and manner that does not require great mental effort on their part, and anything that does will be meet with discrimination and disdain.

Consider "Chronicles Of Riddick" as proof: Vin Diesel is the star. Because he is this movie will be paid lip service, will suffer demeaning, debasing, rude, insulting, prejudicial, bigoted, and unnecessary remarks and criticism. Because it is a science fiction movie any respectability and credibility its story might otherwise muster will be negated and disregarded.

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