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The Chronicles of Riddick
Back in the late 70's and early 80's there were a ton of great space/scifi adventure films. These films were cheesy, featured underdeveloped characters, and featured bad special effects. These films were great because they understood there limitations and reveled in them. They never tried to take themselves seriously, they were about a good time. Many films today that could fit this mold are The Day After Tomorrow, The Core, Armageddon, and countless others. These films are failures because they take themselves seriously, and they sell themselves as being more intelligent than they really are. By selling themselves in this fashion they are judged on that level, and they all fail. Had these films embraced their campy roots they may have been able become another Flash Gordon, Buckaroo Banzai, Mad Max, Ice Pirates, or to a much lesser degree Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone. The most recent film to get it right was the original Starship Troopers.
The Chronicles of Riddick may have wanted to be more than a campy scifi adventure but that's about all in ended up being. Is that such a bad thing?
The Movie
After his heart stopping escape from the alien planet in Pitch Black Riddick (Vin Diesel) has continued with his life of crime. He has separated himself from those who might be harmed by staying with him and he runs from those trying to collect on the bounty still on his head.
Meanwhile an evil race is making its way through the Universe destroying humanity one planet at a time. This group, known as The Necromangers, led by The Lord Marshall (Colm Feore) seeks to either kill humans or convert them to Necromangers.
Riddick is brought into this war between humanity and the Necromangers unwillingly by Aereon (Judi Dench). Aereon is a member of a religious sect called The Elementals. The Elementals are never given any development so we don't know who or "what" they are and what their stake in the battle is. We do know that Aereon knows a great deal more than she revels about Riddick and his importance to the battle and his future outside the framework of this film. I feel like we will see her again in future films.
Rather than agree to fight in the war Riddick decides to go to a prison planet where the sun beats down on the surface hot enough to melt skin every fifteen minutes. Although a lot of this situation doesn't make sense it does make for some of the best action sequences in the film. If we were forced to ask ourselves about the planet we would wonder why the characters could breath the air if the sun really burned the surface that hot. It doesn't matter, this is high adventure baby! But of course his involvement isn't over.
The film is a huge cgi event from beginning to end. Some of it is very good but a lot of it looks a little to cartoony to me. Even if they had to be cheap looking I would rather have seen more real set pieces and a few less cgi backgrounds. The fight sequences in this film are nearly as painful for the viewer as they are for those involved. They are splintered and cut so quick I could barely see what was happening and a couple of sequences managed to mix in heavy strobe lights to successfully give me a head ache. Those involved had some really cool fights but they aren't presented in the film in a way that showcases them.
No one in the film is really that memorable accept for Diesel himself. His commanding growl and stern look are perfect for this type of character. When he yelled "move your ass" you knew he meant it.
Yes the character development is almost non-existent and the movie is about fifteen minutes to long but it's a lot of fun. Yes realistically the script needed tightening, and yes I had real problems with the overabundance of cgi and the horribly cut fight scenes. But at the same time I really enjoyed Riddick as a character and I wanted to see what he would do next. I hope they do more of these films, and if you yearn for over the top space action you will too.
7/10
-Stephen Lackey |
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The Chronicles of Riddick
Review: 7/10
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