It's not a big secret that I think Vin Diesel is a terrible actor. No, seriously. He's really bad, just watch him. Now, having said that, it doesn't necessarily mean that some of his film haven't been ok despite him (but most of them haven't been). However, there is an exception to every rule, and for me The Chronicles of Riddick is that exception. This shocked me since I thought Pitch Black sucked serious eggs.

For those of you who didn't know, The Chronicles of Riddick is actually a sequel of sorts to Pitch Black telling the tale of the future adventures of Riddick. The movie is no classic, however it perfectly (imho) accomplishes what it set out to do: Be a fun, somewhat dark, adventure film with a couple of interesting characters and decent visual effects. And to my surprise Diesel played the part quite well. Riddick is the only character I've seen him slip into and really own. I give credit where credit is due, and the man deserves credit for this one.

Anyway, hitting the shelves today at video stores everywhere is the Director's Cut DVD of The Chronicles of Riddick. I'll be picking up my copy a little later this afternoon. The good folks over at DVDFanatic interviewed Vin recently about the DVD and gives us this:

DVDFanatic: What does the new footage add to the film, specifically those three scenes with Kristin Lehman’s Shirah character?

Vin Diesel: I think it gives you a sense of origin. I think it starts to flesh out a sense of origin for our Riddick character, this enigmatic character, in a cool way. The Shirah character really comes in at important moments like when he’s on the runway. The Shirah character, in creating this story, was designed to introduce Riddick to his Furyan nature. So on the runway she unleashes this radius of fury, this burst of Furyan energy that actually repels this negative energy which is this long explanation that you’ll see in future Chronicles of Riddick pictures. When we were creating this story, we were creating a story that would be told over three films. The Shirah character is introduced in [this] film but is paid off in the third film, if you will. When the way that it’s designed -- and I hope I’m not giving too much away -- but in Chronicles of Riddick II we now go into the Underverse and then C3, if you will, is that final return home to Furya. That’s it in a nutshell.

DVDFanatic: Are the next two films a lock? Are they definitely happening?

Vin Diesel: Nothing’s a lock in this world. (laugh) I guess we’ll see what happens with this.