The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
Also known as "Pitch Black 2: The Chronicles of Riddick"
All the power in the universe can't change destiny
Starring: Vin Diesel, Colm Feore, Thandie Newton, Judi Dench , Karl Urban
Director: David Twohy
Running Time: 119 minutes
US MPAA rating: PG-13UK BBFC rating: 15
Action, Adventure, Science Fiction, Thriller
Vin Diesel first came to notice, as if from nowhere, playing Riddick, a resourceful convict with the ability to see in the dark, in a low-budget sci-fi horror called Pitch Black (2000). From that moment on, it was as though the whole of Hollywood had suddenly converted to Diesel, and box-office successes like The Fast and the Furious and XXX quickly established his outlaw smirk and Brando-like mumbling as highly commercial trademarks. It is now difficult to remember (at least for the male teens who form his principal fanbase) a cinematic universe without him, so rapidly has his rising star become fixed there. In other words, if someone were to write the chronicles of Vin Diesel, they would be a rags-to-riches tale full of incident and ascension - but they would also be very very short.
Diesel's latest film brings him back full circle to his humble beginnings as Riddick, and is itself the story of a man ascending rapidly from nowhere to challenge the supremacy of the acting élite. When a fanatical cult of fascist mystics known as the Necromongers threaten to destroy the planet of Helion Prime if its populace refuses to convert, Riddick is summoned by his old acquaintance Imam (Keith David, who was also in 'Pitch Black') and the elemental envoy Aereon (Judi Dench) to be just the "kind of evil" that might balance the odds against the Necromongers' ghostly leader the Lord Marshal (Colm Feore). Reluctantly drawn into a battle that he does not regard as his own, Riddick uses his murderous talents and animal cunning to elude one danger after another, whether it is the mercenaries that pursue him, a high-security prison on a volcanic planet, the zombie armies of the Necromongers, or the conspiratorial machinations of the Lord Marshal's inner circle - but the one thing that Riddick cannot escape is his own manifest destiny.
Writer/director David Twohy has come a long way since his disastrous screenplay for 'Waterworld', and in 'The Chronicles of Riddick' he has elevated his keen-sighted antihero from the claustrophobic Alien-style terror of Pitch Black into an epic space adventure more akin to 'Star Wars' - and in fact the criminal Riddick, dogged by bounty hunters and using hardened, selfish cynicism to cloak an essentially gooey centre, is like Han Solo with a shaven head (but thankfully without a wookie).
Space opera is an inherently cheesy genre, and Riddick is not the most articulate of characters to hold this film's grandiose set-pieces together, but if you have managed to keep in touch with your inner adolescent, then there is plenty to like here (and little to bore). The sets are stunningly designed, mixing futurism and feudalism to striking effect; the Necromongers look more like the Cenobites from 'Hellraiser' than the stormtroopers from 'Star Wars'; the action is, er, fast and furious; the supporting cast is excellent (especially Karl Urban as the Lord Marshal's would be successor Vaako, Thandie Newton as Vaako's Lady Macbeth, and Linus Roache as the diffident Necromonger 'purifier') - and best of all, the film opens with the normally bald Riddick/Diesel sporting long hair and a beard as though he were an escapee not from the intergalactic police but from ZZ Top's last tour.
It's Got: A science-fiction hero who, despite saying very little, repeatedly uses the word 'skittish'; the memorable threat "I'll kill you with my teacup" (and the threat is followed through); the return of the two other survivors of 'Pitch Black' (Imam, played again by Keith David, and girl-disguised-as-boy 'Jack', who has renamed herself Kyra and, like so many of Vin Diesel's fans, modelled all her adolescent mannerisms on Riddick's - she is played by Alexa Davelos); a genuinely epic feel, generated by vast sets and a plot involving interplanetary strife, religion and destiny.
It Needs: For Vin Diesel to stop mumbling all his lines.
Alternatives: Pitch Black, Star Wars
Summary: Space opera, a prison breakout, spectral zealots and an anarchist anti-hero - dumb, maybe, but this film has enough in it to make you see the light.
External Links
Official Web Site
The Chronicles of Riddick at the IMDB
Comments7 Comments |
| I recently went to see this picture and was amazed at the effects that ahve been put into it. It is an amazing sequel to the film pitch balck and has proven that vin diesel is the next true action hero of cinema. |
| Comment by:- creative20 | | 04 September 2004 | ip: logged |
| Ye Gods, STOP David Twohy from ever writing or directing ANYTHING ever again. Pitch Black - good, Chronicles of Riddick - Bad, oh so bad. Perhaps as bad as the 3rd Matrix... One can only hope that he passes the baton onto a better writer and director if they do a 3rd film. |
| Comment by:- Roasted | | 13 September 2004 | ip: logged |
| Fantastic sets and atmosphere however the story lacks continuity and coherency at times with certain story lines not being followed through. What keeps it going is the action though! |
| Comment by:- Alex Vassallo | | 15 September 2004 | ip: logged |
| i have recently got the dvd of the film. and i love it, it is a good story of showing riddicks kinder side though he still is the, arse kicking riddick we all know and love. the story sometimes is a bit boring or so i found, but the people who dont like the film have to agree, that the acting was good. or i could be on my own on that point as well. i loved the sexual atmosphere between riddick and, jack. though i hated the ending. |
| Comment by:- morgon smith | | 22 September 2004 | ip: logged |
| it is a wicked film and the effects are amazin.The stunts are scary and the story line was good too |
| Comment by:- Megan Allsopp | | 24 September 2004 | ip: logged |
| i thought riddick was very sexy in this movie he was better that the first movie. |
| Comment by:- erin | | 28 October 2004 | ip: logged |
| DEMA I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS SITE PLEASE ENJOY SKY |
| Comment by:- SKY | | 16 November 2004 | ip: logged |
