Pitch Black

So a friend recommended Pitch Black and it was... kind of a rough sit for me.

I just am not getting Riddick's character at all. What's preventing him from going "screw you guys, I'm ditching you on this planet and getting this ship running again"?

A friend said "He needs them so he can escape, and vice versa". He does need them? How?

I didn't dislike it really, but I'm just not understanding Riddick's motives in the slightest.

My read on it was that Riddick is possibly a psychopath, but one who objectively values certain traits in others. He can't empathize with people, but he can admire them. Thus, he's willing to fight for the people who display admirable qualities (i.e. those willing to fight competently).

My friend who suggested it to me said that Riddick realized he couldn't carry all the power cells by himself, so he begrudgingly accepted help because he's not dumb. Another suggested that it was a safety-in-numbers thing. I'm still curious as to how you can extrapolate any of this out of the movie. All I saw was "Riddick does this because the plot says so." Then again, that's how I see most movies.

edited 20th Mar '15 11:31:59 AM by Twentington

I haven't watched Pitch Black all the way through yet. I have seen bits of it, and they are good, but I much prefer Chronicles of Riddick. That film is just awesome.

I think you may be missing the point that despite appearing hard Riddick has a strong sense of personal ethics and his own moral sense. Basically even the seemingly psychopathic bad ass has standards and follows them. While he is largely opportunistic and self serving Riddick chooses to adhere to his own personal morals rather then abandon them. He kills the one guy because of that rather then kill Jack.

And that's what didn't make sense to me, that a psycopathic badass would have morals and standards. Those seem like two completely contradictory extremes.

Riddick isn't a heartless psychopath though. His character is significantly more layered than that. And even if we was a psychopath, psychos can have a moral code. A very screwed up moral code, but they can still have them.

Yeh. Even Evil Has Standards is a trope for a reason.

I'm still not understanding what doesn't make him just say "Screw it, I'm leaving your sorry asses behind, I wanna get out of here" when the fit hits the shan. Maybe I just need a rewatch?