Quackula said:

Couldn't you criticize the retconning and reframing of any movie that has sequels?

You can certainly criticize it in a lot of sequels, that's for sure :D

But point is, at the end of the day, had the storywriters put more thought in, say, the "reveals" in the OT, that story would be more consistent, or at least the plot holes not as huge and obvious.

But hey, look at Men in Black II? Now I haven't analyzed its plot holes or anything (surely, any such "memory gambit" plot with twists and reveals is highly susceptible to gaping mistakes), but does it really "reframe" the premise of the first? Or even retcon anything significant?

Also, note that "reframing" isn't always a bad thing - for example, I don't have any particular problem with Alien 2 being in a different genre than its predecessor, it's sure an interesting concept.

With Riddick, wasn't it cool that they took that claustrophobic space horror movie, and then set the main character into a much larger context? I mean, can't you get into a dungeon full of snakes in real life and then 5 years later get involved in fighting the evil empire that happens to occupy your land, in real life? Why not?

At the end of the day, I just thought the actual movie was kinda cheesy and lame, though. Riddick is Win, obviously :D