Fandom: December Talking Meme #8: Fast and the Furious vs Pitch Black/Riddick

[escritoireazul]

December Talking Meme Master List

(There are still some days left open in the meme, if you want to suggest a(nother) topic.)

Day 8 suggested by devon: Can you tell us about Fast & Furious versus Pitch Black/Riddick and how you prefer your Vin Diesel?

I prefer my Vin Diesel any way I can get him. A talking tree who basically only repeated one line was my favorite character in Guardians of the Galaxy because of the way he dealt with the intonation. I live a Vin Diesel appreciate life all day every day.

The Fast and the Furious was the first movie I saw Vin Diesel in, and I fell in love. I have such a soft spot for Dominic Toretto, and I imagine he will always be my favorite Vin Diesel character. Toretto hits so many of my buttons: he's a mechanic who is incredibly loyal to and protective of his family, to the point of making terrible mistakes and becoming violent when a family member is hurt or killed, who brings people together (he's their gravity, as Mia says) and struggles to keep their world steady. Also, he's hot as everloving hell with a voice that just doesn't quit. I love big men with growly voices (see also, J), and yes, yes, yes.

Shortly after I watched Fast and the Furious and fell in love with Dominic Toretto and Vin Diesel, my friend Keya found out I had never seen Pitch Black and suggested I remedy this IMMEDIATELY. She was not wrong. I had heard nothing about Pitch Black at that point, which was a real shame, because Pitch Black is amazing.

While I like the rest of the series well enough (though I have some serious issues with Riddick that were so frustrating I had to vent to raz0rgirl over Skype because just typing up my frustrations were not enough. [Basically: OMGWTF I FUCKING TRUST YOUR MOVIES NOT TO BE SUPER SHITTY TOWARDS WOMEN. WHAT THE EVER LOVING FUCK HAPPENED WITH RIDDICK? WHY? SO MANY CHOICES WERE THE SHITTIEST CHOICES EVER. GODDAMN IT.]), Pitch Black is my favorite. (And Riddick could have been up there, because it really felt like a return to the Pitch Black style, except see previous rant.)

Pitch Black is a horror movie in space, and I love it. I love all the characters, I love their weaknesses, I love their fears and fighting. I love the cinematography. I love the monsters. I love the light, and I love the darkness. I used to have movie nights with my sisters and one of my brothers in law where we'd watch Pitch Black far more nights than not, and quote our favorite bits to each other until they became jokes (the "looks clear" bit remains an in-joke with Sister K) (we would also often get Chinese food and watch Lost Boys, because yes) (Sister K and I actually also make references to Tokyo Drift as a part of our in-jokes, particularly "this ain't no ten second race") (these asides are just driving home the point my real number one fandom is Vin Diesel, aren't they?). I can watch Pitch Black again and again and again and never get tired of it.

Riddick is not my favorite part of Pitch Black, though. I mean, he's awesome, and I love his controlled violence (and the many times he's bound in chains, yes, more of that please), but for me, Pitch Black is all about Jack and her disguise as a boy [and Jack as a trans guy is A+ storytelling in fanfic], Shazza's attitude (OMG SHAZZA), and Carolyn Fry's redemption. The guys are just dressing to that storyline, really, including Riddick. (And Radha Mitchell is amazing and strong and lovely.)

(Aside, I swear that Cole Hauser plays his character in The Cave as inspired by Vin Diesel playing Riddick, especially as more animalistic traits start to appear. Also, I just learned that Cole Hauser is filming a new Lizzie Borden tv miniseries, which, yay! I love Lizzie Borden stories.)

I will watch Vin Diesel in anything. (No, seriously, I own The Pacifier. /headdesk) Like I said in an earlier post, I don't tend to keep up to date on actor's lives, but the bits of things I've learned about him over the years are adorable: his love for D&D, the way he interacts with his fans via Facebook, the way he's super open about his love for his friends and family, and the way he seems so enthusiastic in creating these worlds I love.

So, basically, my preferred Vin Diesel is any Vin Diesel, but Dominic Toretto and the Fast and the Furious series are my absolute favorites. That series, and all its characters, own my heart.

Comments

[blueswan]

I've never seen anything with Vin Diesel, but what I've read of him, he sounds like a really great guy. That said, I was channel surfing and came across the opening sequence of Fast and Furious. What is that? Awesome. I hit record so fast, you can not believe! So that's on my dvr waiting for me to have time to watch it next weekend.

[escritoireazul]

Yay! I hope you enjoy it. Fast and Furious is the fourth movie released (and timeline-wise, the third movie), but should more or less stand alone once you get to the bulk of the story itself.

[dhampyresa]

Those both sound really interesting, especially Pitch Black.

[escritoireazul]

They really are! Pitch Black is one I recommend to a lot of people; while it is technically a part of a series, you can watch it by itself and feel completely satisfied.

[devon]

For me it was the other way around - I saw Pitch Black first, and I was like, "Who is this amazing animal?!" I am a fan of characters who become less (or more) civilized according to their circumstances. The round-up of characters in Pitch Black was great - so much variety! And then this hunky, hunky actor of ambiguous origin.

I was pretty disappointed that Jack grew up to be a girly girl, but that was mostly the fault of the producers, I think. They considered using the same actor, but she wasn't as athletic as the one they ended up casting.

I have only watched the first Fast and Furious movie, but I think I should re-watch it and probably the others. Are there any that I should skip?

My friends at my last job were so impressed by my Vin fixation that they got me a copy of A Man Apart, with the warning that it was really terrible. It wasn't that terrible because I still had Vin. Also, I have dreamed about him - his sweet real life persona. (I can't say personality because even in real life, actors show what they want to the public.) Nothing nasty, because I'm just never that lucky in my dreams, but he gave me a great hug.

[senmut]

Knockaround Guys. Not the best movie, but the rapport between Vin and Barry Pepper in that movie are well-worth seeing!!!!

[escritoireazul]

I love Knockaround Guys! It's definitely not the greatest movie, but their rapport is awesome, and I also really love Seth Green's role.

[devon]

Thirded! Knockaround Guys should go on my Netflix queue to watch again. It had some weaknesses, but overall it was fun.

[escritoireazul]

Yeah, I was not pleased with the portrayal of Jack as Kyra in CoR, even though I love the actress they used. (As an actor in general, just not in the part.) So much potential in the Jack character, and yet the way they went was disappointing. I mean, on its own, maybe not, but coming from Jack in Pitch Black, yes.

So of the Fast and the Furious movies, you can definitely skip #2, 2 Fast 2 Furious. It is, in my opinion, the worst of the series anyway, and then it has a vastly different setting. Some of the characters from it show up in later movies, but not in a way that you really need to have seen #2 at all.

I'm torn on #3 (based on actual release date), Tokyo Drift. It's a fun movie, though I will forever be mad that studio execs decided a fucking movie called Tokyo Drift needed a white main character in order for audiences to connect with it. It introduces an amazing character, Han, but movies #4, 5, and 6 are set before it takes place.

I think that at some point before #7, you'll need to have watched Tokyo Drift, because #7 appears to be the fallout of Tokyo Drift, but not necessarily before the others.

So really, #1 (Fast and the Furious) and #4 (Fast and Furious) are tied close together. Technically, #5 (Fast Five) can stand alone as an amazing heist movie, though it references a few things and has characters from the first movies, and #6 (Fast and Furious 6) follows pretty tight onto it, so you'll probably need to watch #5 and #6 as a pair. As I said, #2 (2 Fast 2 Furious) is horrible and can be skipped. (Or if you are a big fan of Paul Walker's character, it's probably awesome.) Then #3 (Tokyo Drift) happens after all of these movies, and it looks like #7 (Furious Seven) will run directly from #6 and #3, where a big moment in #3 happens at the end of #6 too, so watching #6 first will spoil #3 for you, but watching #3 first will spoil #6 for you.

Also, the words "fast" and "furious" no longer look like words OMG.

[devon]

I know what you mean about words becoming strange collections of letters.

So I should re-watch #1, then #4, then #5, then #3 and #6 which spoil each other?

Arrrrgh! None of them are on Netflix!

[escritoireazul]

Also, I think his real life persona would give great hugs. A+.

[topaz119]

I was a Vin Diesel fan before F&F, but Dom Toretto and how his driving motivation is to take care of his family (and how he defines that family as more than just blood) is never getting out of my head. I really don't know how I'm going to get through this next movie.

[escritoireazul]

Yes. So much this. And I am just -- I'm so glad the series continued, but at the same time, it's left so much more room for heartache to follow. My shiny cars and hot people movies shouldn't break my heart, damn. It's going to be a thing all right.

[senmut]

Jack. Carolyn. Shazza (need to write the AU, dammit).

But I love Riddick... before we got the first live sequel. I can cope with the animated, but there was something about Riddick being 'other' without having it speeled out as truly not human that I prefer.

VIN!!!! OMG, I fell for his voice in The Iron Giant before anything else. HATE him in Saving Private Ryan, but not because of him; more for the role he played.

But yeah, FatF is my favorite Vin on-screen.

[escritoireazul]

Yes, yes, you do need to write the AU and I would like to read it immediately.

So, weirdly enough, Iron Giant and Saving Private Ryan are the only two movies of his I've not seen. SPR because I'm just not super interested in it, though eventually I'll watch it, and IG because I've already been told it will break my heart and nope, I'll wait awhile longer, thanks.