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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 17.61%
Worth A Look: 22.54%
Average: 28.87%
Pretty Bad: 18.31%
Total Crap: 12.68%
7 reviews, 100 user ratings
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| Chronicles of Riddick, The |
by Dennis Swennumson
"Macbeth in space!"
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There are a few summer movie trends rotate from year to year, some are marked by competition from new blockbusters that studios hope will grow into full-fledged franchises, others are dominated by sequels to the successful wannabes. The top movies of the summer so far are “Shrek 2” and the third Harry Potter film, and with “Spider-man 2” quickly approaching, this summer is the kind when sequels reign. “Chronicles of Riddick” is the follow-up to the 2000 sci-fi/horror effort “Pitch Black,” it’s a curious release because the original was marginally successful in theaters and had a stronger following on video. “Chronicles of Riddick” doesn’t make any great admission to the genre; it’s just a testament to how Hollywood will try anything to make a few more dollars.“Chronicles of Riddick” picks up five years after the first film’s events, Vin Diesel returns as the title character, and probably the only reason why this film was made, still a hunted man. While he avoids the repeated attempts of capture, a fanatical and imperialistic race called the Necromongers travel across the universe converting planets and entire civilizations in the name of their own version of paradise called Underverse. Through revelations presented by Aereon, played by Dame Judi Dench who seems amusingly out of place, Riddick reluctantly discovers his place amongst the crusading Necromongers (pun intended by the movie’s dialogue) and those failing to resist.
Up until its midway point the film was exceeding personally low expectations. There were well-executed actions sequences and its pacing kept the film engaging. Even the movie’s obligations to fill in what happened to survivors left over from “Pitch Black” were making sense and working. Unfortunately at Riddick’s arrival to the prison-colony planet Crematoria is where the film starts to rotten. There’s a footrace that takes place on top and below the planet’s treacherous landscape with stakes set all too high, the following necessary scenes having to do with closing issues with the Necromongers tends to drag the film out when they shouldn’t. He was doing fine in the early going, but as the movie progresses writer-director David Twohy struggles horribly with balancing the film as a sequel and the film as a completely new saga.
Any mention of “Pitch Black” was removed from the film’s ad campaign, rightfully so because the original and the sequel are completely different films, at least when it comes to story and themes. “Pitch Black” took place on one deserted planet with the survivors of a destroyed ship trying to fight creatures that were only viable in the dark. The relationships amongst the survivors were cliché of horror movies and the films own rules were established too quickly, after awhile it became boring and nothing new happened. In “Chronicles” the premise is dictated in the first ten minutes because Twohy either doesn’t have the talent to write comprehensible narrative flow or is more concerned with making great action sequences with the overblown budget he didn’t have with the first. What “Pitch Black” and “Chronciles of Riddick” share in common are their biggest flaws, poorly structured storytelling that allow the films to drag into boredom.
The success of a sequel directly relates to the merits of the original. The first wasn’t too good of a movie, it had its moments but the sci-fi-horror combination only succeeded in showing why “Alien” continues to be such a great film. On those grounds “Chronicles of Riddick” is better than its predecessor, even with the overblown budget and excessively sprawling plot.The film wears its influences on its sleeve, from “Star Wars” to the historical basis- basis used as a very loose term- in the Crusades and even Twohy’s unfortunate use of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” to influence his story. That works against the film, instead of watching “Chronicles of Riddick” we could be seeing “Star Wars”, learning about the real Crusades or be reading “Macbeth.” The film is sometimes engaging and even some of the most devout sci-fi fans will find it to be just all right, but ultimately the movie is just another disposable summer flick.
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=10007&reviewer=338
originally posted: 06/18/04 13:05:59
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USA
11-Jun-2004 (PG-13)
DVD: 16-Nov-2004
UK
N/A
Australia
29-Jul-2004
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