The Chronicles of Riddick

6/13/04 - Review

Vin Diesel is back as the bad ass animal-like criminal, Riddick, in The Chronicles of Riddick, the sequel to the surprise 2000 hit Pitch Black.  Five years have past since Riddick and the two commoners escaped the deadly creatures in a distant planet in the far end of the galaxy.  Riddick spends his days dodging mercenaries that are out to collect the one million dollar bounty on his head. 

The Muslim cleric from the first film, Imam (Keith David) sends bounty hunters to his current whereabouts in an effort to bring him to help his cause.  Imam’s home world, Planet Helion, has come under attack by the nasty Necromongers, a race of people bent on wiping out the entire universe.  Helion’s only hope is Riddick because of the supposed prophecy that foresees Riddick as the only person that will ever kill the evil Lord Marshall (Colm Feore).

Riddick scoffs at the idea but soon the Necromongers discover his destiny and exile him to a prison planet where he meets up with the only other survivor from the first film, Jack, or now Kyra (Alexa Davalos).  She looks up to him and actually tried to catch up with him in the past but was sentenced to the prison as well.  They plan on escaping the prison but in the process run into the Necromongers again.  No matter the outcome, Riddick cannot escape his destiny and he will have to face the Lord Marshall while the fate of the galaxy depends on Riddick emerging victorious. 

Not many people knew about the little surprise science fiction hit of 2000, Pitch Black.  Maybe with the release of Riddick, people will go back to see where it all started.  While that movie wasn’t great, it was still unique and a very decent sci-fi horror flick.  Much like the original, this movie is not great, but it is still good enough to live up to the original, and might actually surpass it. 

To really give this film any justice, you should really see Pitch Black to learn the history of the Riddick character.  Sure, David Twohy does a good job of explaining Riddick’s background, but not all can be told without seeing the first movie.  If people knew the first movie, and enjoyed it, then I wouldn’t hear dumb ass idiots behind me saying the movie is “stupid.”  They just don’t get it.  If you liked the first movie, you’ll like this.

The films wastes no time bringing our favorite criminal into focus.  From there, the movie is non stop action, fights, and about a million one liners from Vin Diesel.  The  film tops in close to two hours long but it could have been a little longer because the ending was rushed a bit at the end.  Either that or speed up the beginning a little bit because the movie took about thirty minutes or so to really get going.  After that, well, watch it for yourself.  Those are my only real problems with the movie.   The story was much better than the original movie and more engaging.  It was also nice to see some of the familiar faces from the first film, including the boy/girl named Jack/Kyra.

Riddick looks much more like a true science fiction film than Pitch Black ever did.  You can tell that more money was given to Twohy, a mere $105 million.  The special effects looked really good, especially the ships and the cities/planets.  The big ass dogs looked a bit cheesy and arcade like, but their eyes made up for it.  Hint hint.  The fights were awesome.  Hell, any fight scene with Diesel looked incredible. 

Well, it looks like Vin Diesel finally has another decent movie under his belt. He did a spectacular job in this film and looked the part.  The beard looked a bit out of place though in the beginning.  This is a character bred for him and like Pitch Black, he does a fantastic job.  He somehow managed to mouth off these one liners without making them seem cheesy. 

The supporting cast was really good with people like Judy Dench, Keith David, Thandie Newton, and Colm Feore.  Dench had very little screen time but she was very convincing as the future predicting Elemental.  The Lord Marshall was played by Colm and his fight with Diesel kicked major ass.  I would have liked to see a little more with the side story between Newton and her husband Vaako, played by Karl Urban.

I really hope that David Twohy gets to bring us two more movies about the Riddick character as he has planned.  This movie continues on the success from the first movie and sets up the next one beautifully.  Thought it’s not great, it is still a good movie and Vin Diesel really fits the part.  Do yourself a favor and watch Pitch Black before seeing this one.  You’ll thank me. 

Grade

What do you think?