Some motion pictures are ignored or misunderstood at first, but gradually build respect and popularity over a period of time.  This is true for Dr. Zhivago, Touch of Evil, Casablanca--and now The Chronicles of Riddick.

Critically lambasted and a box office disappointment when it opened, Riddick has attracted a whole new generation of moviegoers since its initial release.  First-time viewers fondly remember the film, and are now bringing their children and introducing them to the experience.

“I’m taking my son to see it tomorrow,” said Sam Parks, a moviegoer in Vermont.  “I want to show it to him and say Son, this is what your father did...what, thirteen days ago?  Yeah, I think it opened about two weeks ago.  Anyway, I think it’ll mean a lot to him, to know what I did back then.”

Parks adds, “I don’t just take my son to the movies.  I also throw rocks at him and make him eat worms.”

Writer/Director David Twohy believes that the story’s universality is what brings people to the second-run movie houses and bargain matinees.  “People really connect to the story of Riddick fighting the Undermongers, who are seeking the Necroverse.”

But isn’t Riddick actually fighting the Necromongers, who are seeking the Underverse?

“Oh right.  Necromongers and Underverse.  But really, I think that’s the beauty of my script.  You can combine different word variations and it will still make sense.  Basically, each audience member brings their own interpretation to the story, and that’s what art is, really.”

Twohy adds, “Our leading man, Vin Diesl, is absolutely essential to the success of the character of Riddick.  He plays a hero who is defined by not being evil...that is, the hero is the antithesis of what’s bad and evil elsewhere in the story.  And I think audiences connect with that.”

As is common with movie classics, interpreting the story becomes not simply a job for the common viewer, but also for trained academics.  Dr. Carl Matthews, a noted film professor at Duke University, has written extensively on Riddick.  He explains, ”Riddick operates within a post-Lacanian framework, in which the Necromongers search for the Mirror Image that has been sutured at the moment of their Primal Scene.  It plays against binary oppositions to formulate a psychoanalytic matrix upon which the narrative structure resides.”

Matthews, who was having sex with a student at the time of making these comments, admitted he hadn’t seen the entire movie.  “That’s just my impressions from the trailer, which I downloaded from Apple.com.  But I’ll definitely see the movie before I present my Riddick paper at my conference next week.”

Tom Williams, CEO of Universal Studios, believes that the movie will continue to attract new fans.  “I mean, Riddick will probably be heading to cable in about a week.  But I think it can gain a whole new audience there.  For example, let’s say some guy is flipping through the channels and heading for the porn networks.  He might stumble across Riddick for a few seconds and say, ‘Hey, cool.’ And then he’ll keep looking for the porn. But in those few seconds we’ll have touched that person with our movie.  And that’s all any of us want.”