A super-expensive, quasi-sequel to 'Pitch Black', Vin Diesel reteamed with director David Twohy for a much more ambitious tale surrounding protag Riddick - a bloated, convoluted Dune-like mythology threw people off at first but it may be deserving of a second chance.
Man, was I ready to lay into 'Chronicles of Riddick'. Having harbored bad thoughts from my ’04 theater visit all these years where expectations were dashed when R-rated alien-annihilating action turned to a PG-13-rated series of chamber-pieces with ‘different’ races of humans (read: boring) standing around and jaw flapping about this, that or the other. I was understandably perturbed then but five years later? I kind of liked it.
Maybe this was due to the unrated director’s cut where the pacing and violence was improved (though fifteen minutes were ironically added) but I think it also just needed a little time to separate itself from the now five-year old expectations of what people were wanting from a ‘Pitch Black’ sequel. It still has its flaws to be sure but I was entertained, and dare I say, pleasantly surprised.
Firmly in space opera mode, we find ourselves hundreds of years in the future and after the events of ‘Pitch Black’, Riddick is in hiding and becomes the target of bounty hunter Toombs (Nick Chinlund) who has tracked him to an icy, crevice-filled planet.
Toombs obviously doesn’t know who he’s f’ing with – it’s Vin Diesel with a mountain-man beard for God sakes! – And Riddick makes short work of Toombs crew and hijacks his ship.
Only one person was entrusted with Riddick’s whereabouts and Riddick plans a disciplinary visit to Helion Prime to confront Imam al-Waild (Keith David), survivor of the first pic. This opens up the story to epic proportions where a massive universal struggle is at hand.
A superior race of half-dead humans called ‘Necromongers’, led by Lord Marshal (Colm Feore), are storming through the universe with their giant axes and formidable technology intent on ruling the galaxy and finding another known as the ‘Underverse’.
When Riddick confronts Imam, there was apparently a good reason for Imam’s supposed betrayal. The Necromongers are coming and Holy man needs help! Now we learn that the Necromongers have some drama of their own as Commander Vaako (Karl Urban) is being pushed to off Lord Marshal by his icy, bitch of a slinky wife Dame Vaako (Thandie Newton) who apparently majored in Renaissance Literature.
With Riddick finding himself at odds with the Necromongers – word from a captive fortune-telling elemental (Dame Judi Dench also seeing dollar signs in her future?) foretells a prophecy of a Furyan (Riddick, last of his kind) being the galaxy’s savior and saving countless races and lives from the wrath of the Necromongers – he barely escapes Lord Marshal’s edict of death only to find himself in the greedy hands of Toombs.
And the overstuffed narrative powers forward with Riddick manipulating Toombs into taking him to sunny prison Crematoria where he knows gal pal Jack (Alexa Davalos), the other survivor from the first pic, was caged. Something of a badass hottie now, Jack proclaims her name as Kyra and no one seems to argue.
After a cool ‘race the sun’ action sequence, the pressure is on for Riddick to live up to his destiny and save the galaxy from the Necromongers and Lord Marshal – no easy feat considering the phantom, strike-in-an-instant capability of the Lord. Okay, just writing a few paragraphs about that plot tired me out so let’s face it, the lucidity of the whole shebang is bordering on the not really.
Depending on your thoughts on notable talent parading around in half-way ridiculous costumes, grimacing inwardly and chewing and spitting out clunky space opera dialogue (the notable exception being Diesel himself whose urban retorts could have come out of ‘The Fast and the Furious’) i.e. ‘Dune’, you’ll either go with the plot or just hang around until the next big-budgeted action sequence.
With a budget more than five times that of ‘Pitch Black’, a fully-fleshed out cosmos was created here with several planets, races and space battles conceived. The production design is slick, retro and unmistakably huge and upon viewing again, really stands out as being markedly exhaustive. Acting is across the board fine with Newton being a particular standout and Diesel always proving to be charismatic via scowls and deadpans.
Like ‘Pitch Black’, ‘Chronicles of Riddick’ first came to high-def in 2006 on HD-DVD and that 2.35:1 1080p/VC1 encode makes a return trip here. A fairly outstanding transfer, minted right from the digital master, detail and color is amazing with consistent CGI effects that still hold up. There is nothing to complain about here. A DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio track is provided and also does a bang-up job surrounding you in the action.
Special Features start off with a commentary from director David Twohy and stars Karl Urban and Alexa Davalos. Diesel is an obvious miss here but Twohy provides some decent anecdotes. We get four featurettes: ‘Virtual Guide to ‘The Chronicles of Riddick’ is an self-explanatory eight minutes, ‘Toomb’s Chase Log’ is a quick narration from the character about his Riddick dalliances, ‘Vin Diesel’s Guided Tour’ is six minutes and ‘Visual Effects Revealed’ is Twohy and effects sup Peter Chaing discussing the gargantuan set pieces.
We also get Deleted Scenes with optional Director’s commentary that runs about eight minutes – nothing too notable. Stuff carried over from the HD-DVD include 20 minutes of featurettes, ‘Creation of New Mecca’, ‘Riddick Rises’ and ‘Keep What You Kill’ which delves into the Mecca Universe, Riddick and the Necromongers respectively.
Universal’s nifty ‘U-Control’ features two events, ‘Anatomy of a Fight’ which provides some historical info on the film’s action and combat scenes and ‘Complete Chronicles’ which provides info on the world and Riddick. All this info gives you some insight into how well-planned this world was (unnecessary as it may be). The disc is also BD-Live enabled.
Again, the mind boggles as to what Diesel and Twohy were thinking when conceiving of this sequel. Stripping the horror away and offering up a layered unwarranted mythos in lieu of, they gave fans ‘Dune’ when they were wanting ‘Doom’ (the bloody, sci-fi thrills of the game that is). With all the planet swapping, how hard would it have been to throw an alien planet misadventure in there?
No matter, if you forget past expectations and try and look at the two films as fairly different entities, ‘Chronicles of Riddick’ can be an enjoyable ride. After all, it’s not very often that pure sci-fi like this gets a sizable budget outside of franchises with ‘Star’ in the title so for all you sci-fi geeks out there; this great Blu-ray package may be the perfect excuse for a second chance.
Chronicles of Riddick [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
Your Talkback on this Story