The Chronicles of Riddick (Widescreen Unrated Director's Cut)
by David Twohy
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Actor: Colm Feore, Judi Dench, Karl Urban, Thandie Newton, Vin DieselDirector: David Twohy
Brand: DIESEL,VIN
Writer: David Twohy
Producer: Camille Brown
Producer: David Womark
Producer: George Zakk
Producer: Scott Kroopf
Writer: Jim Wheat
Writer: Ken Wheat
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Director's Cut, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.40:1
Running Time: 119 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-11-16
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Universal
DVD Reviews of The Chronicles of Riddick (Widescreen Unrated Director's Cut)
DVD Review: An Entertaining, If Imperfect, Pulp Science Fiction Action Throwback
Summary: 4 Stars
[Spoilers abound, so be forewarned.......]
The pulp fantasy/sci-fi approach is nothing really new. Lucas flirted with it with Star Wars, 1980's Flash Gordon gaudied it up, and John Milius pumped it up with his take on Conan the Barbarian. However, it's been sort of dormant recently, with movies opting for a "serious" epic treatment (Lord of the Rings), playing it safe (Chronicles of Narnia), or aiming for a post-modern, grim tone (The Matrix). 2004 saw the release of "The Chronicles of Riddick", an unlikely sequel for the modestly performing "Pitch Black", a science fiction survival movie about the survivors of a crashed transport on a desolate planet. Unlike Pitch Black, "Riddick" is not a smaller movie in the line of Alien. For some people, this is why they don't like it (which is understandable). For me, Riddick was great as a revival of the pulp sci-fi style of movie-making, with the obvious benefit of modern special effects delivering the visceral appeal needed for this kind of movie.
"The Chronicles of Riddick" sees director David Twohy fleshing out the universe hinted at in "Pitch Black", where humanity's rapid expansion throughout the Galaxy has resulted in both the creation of a sanctioned mercenary/paid criminal storage system of law enforcement, and the rise of some bizarre fringe cultures, one of which is a nomadic army of crusaders called the Necromongers. Cloaked in the trappings both medieval and futuristic, the "Necros" have been going from planet to planet, laying waste to worlds and "converting" survivors into new members for their ranks. Meanwhile, Riddick (Vin Diesel), one of the three survivors left at the end of "Pitch Black", has been hiding on an ice-covered world for years, due in part to the fact that he's a ruthless killer. When a "merc" named Toombs tries to nab him, Riddick hijacks his ship and goes to the world of Helion Prime to find out who put a private bounty on his head. It turns out to be the Imam who he left with at the end of Pitch Black. The Imam, along with an "Elemental" called Aereon, think that Riddick is the "right kind" of bad guy to stop the Necromongers from wiping out humanity in their crusade. As it happens, the Necros are already heading for Helion Prime, and end up conquering the planet. Riddick, who wants nothing more than to slip through the cracks, ends up being swept into the conflict, and barely escapes the Necromonger's mobile citadel, only to end up being captured by Toombs, and sent to Crematoria, a hellish prison world, where he runs into Kyra, who was the other survivor of the "Pitch Black" incident. It's only a matter of time before the inevitable confrontation occurs between Riddick and the Lord Marshal, leader of the Necros.
Visually, this movie is something else. The movie's massive budget was partly used to build massive sets, with computer graphics shouldering the rest of the burden. It's the visuals that keep the movie pumping along as Riddick heads from one situation to another. While there's a sort of underlying thematic unity to the movie's universe, no one motif is overused. The harsh, purple-lit, arctic wastes of Planet UV-6, the sun-drenched sands and Middle East-inspired city streets of Helion Prime, the gothic, metallic blue of the Necropolis city-ship, the grimy caverns of the Crematoria prison, and the weird, frozen lava floes of Crematoria's surface (where Riddick tries outrun a 700 degree sunrise)- these various settings keep the viewer from losing interest. Where the visuals end, the two-fisted action picks up. Whether it's the massive (if too short) battle for Helion Prime, Riddick trying to evade capture, or Riddick and other prison escapees making a desperate stand at dawn against a Necromonger squad, the movie delivers some kinetic scenes. Even many of the "quieter" scenes, such as the Imam talking with Riddick on his balcony about the coming crisis, or the Necro Vaako searching for Riddick's trail in the sands of Helion Prime, kept my interest.
With a pretty good cast at hand, including Colm Feore, Keith David, Judi Dench, Karl Urban, and Linus Roache, it's surprising that the dialogue doesn't really rise to the actors' level. There are some groan-worthy lines here, and not necessarily in a "so bad it's good" sense. Sometimes characters will try to talk tough, only to have it fall flat in a big way. On the other hand, it's the naked contrast involved in putting prison bull Riddick smack in the middle of the high-falutin' pretentions of the Necromongers and Helion Prime that ends up keeping this film light on its feet. David Twohy keeps you guessing whether he takes this too seriously, is playing things for laughs, or is balancing both approaches. The ongoing interplay between the Dune-on-steroids, Byzantine attitudes of the movie's macroverse, and the sweaty, more earthbound hijinks of Riddick, the mercs, and the goons who run Crematoria keep things from ever getting too esoteric or conversely too mundane. By the end of the movie, when the ending of Milius' "Conan the Barbarian" is expressly referenced, I felt I had gotten my money's worth. Though the often stiff dialogue handed to characters like the Imam, the Lord Marshal and Vaako dares you to laugh at what's happening, the overall package delivers the pulp, sci-fi novel experience in high doses. Those who have only seen the movie in the theater or cable will notice changes and additions, including scenes that add a bit of "pseudo-mystic" to Riddick (and his true origins) that may aggravate fans of Pitch Black's gritty approach, but do serve to help the movie's epic pretentions. Star Wars or Lord of the Rings don't have to worry about being replaced, but there's plenty of room for a newcomer to at least share the same shelf space. I only hope that the not so great initial box office return won't discourage studios from giving the green light to another Riddick movie of the same scope.
Description of The Chronicles of Riddick (Widescreen Unrated Director's Cut)
Wanted man Richard Riddick is on the run from bounty hunters when he is recruited by an ethereal ambassador from a race called Elementals to stop an evil race of Necromongers from taking over the universe.Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: UN
Release Date: 14-FEB-2006
Media Type: DVD
Bigger isn't always better, but for anyone who enjoyed Pitch Black, a nominal sequel like The Chronicles of Riddick should prove adequately entertaining. Writer-director David Twohy returns with expansive sets, detailed costumes, an army of CGI effects artists, and the star he helped launch--Vin Diesel--bearing his franchise burden quite nicely as he reprises his title role. The Furian renegade Riddick has another bounty on his head, but when he escapes from his mercenary captors, he's plunged into an epic-scale war waged by the Necromongers. A fascist master race led by Lord Marshal (Colm Feore), they're determined to conquer all enemies in their quest for the Underverse, the appeal of which is largely unexplained (since Twohy is presumably reserving details for subsequent "chronicles"). With tissue-thin plotting, scant character development, and skimpy roles that waste the talents of Thandie Newton (as a Necromonger conspirator) and Judi Dench (as a wispy "Elemental" priestess), Twohy's back in the B-movie territory he started in (with The Arrival), brought to vivid life on a vast digital landscape with the conceptual allure of a lavish graphic novel. But does Riddick have leadership skills on his resumé? To get an answer to that question, sci-fi fans will welcome another sequel. --Jeff Shannon
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