Riddick - One thing that disturbed me... *minor spoiler*

Although I've been keeping this blog strictly limited to food, I just have to write away one thing that's been eating away at me ever since I watched the movie Riddick yesterday. I haven't seen Pitch Black or Chronicles, but you didn't really have to in order to follow the plot (except in understanding the background of one of the bounty hunters out to get Riddick).

So my little internal rant has not been about the plot, the cinematics, the acting or anything that a movie critic would gripe about. Rather, it's about the dog dying. Yes, there's a dog. A ferocious, predatory jackal-like alien canine, but a dog, nevertheless. And you watch Riddick raise it from a little puppy by feeding it, immunising it against the deadly mud creatures (or, less politically correct, testing a makeshift vaccine on a poor unsuspecting animal) and embracing the CGI puppy in his arms (er.. arm, since he's clearly so strong and manly he doesn't need both arms).

And, like most movies with dogs in it, you grow attached to it and then it gets killed off protecting its owner. Why is it always a dog, anyway? Why can't it be a cat? Or a killer hamster?

I try to console myself with the thought that the dog would have died anyway from the mud aliens, and it suffered an honourable death in the heat of battle. But it still reminds me of my own dog and how she's not going to live forever :(

I then started to think about similarly horrible movies/ video games...

•  I Am Legend: Have not watched this on principle because I know the dog dies.
• Marley & Me: Foolishly watched this when it came out in the cinemas. Marley lived a good life, but I don't want to be reminded of the probability that you will outlive your dog.
• The Evil Dead: I don't like horrors. I now detest them after the drug addicted lady butchered the dog.
• Fallout 3: Yes, I know Dogmeat's not fated to die via the plot. And I know Broken Steel practically makes Dogmeat immortal... BUT without that expansion pack, Dogmeat is just that. Furthermore, Original Dogmeat died a tragic death from a forcefield.
• Fable II: Another video game, but this time the dog's death is part of the plot. Obviously I chose the 'Love' ending to resurrect it.

Throughout this whole mourning period, I came across a website that I've bookmarked for future references. The boycott starts now >:(

http://www.doesthedogdie.com/