Bigger, but not better.
The Lowdown: The Chronicles of Riddick is a direct sequel to Pitch Black, but aspires to be much greater than its predecessor both in theme and execution. Sadly, the film’s greater ambitions ultimately strip away much of what made Pitch Black such an excellent sci-fi action thriller. The slow, deliberate pacing, the constant tension, and even the dark, claustrophobic environments have all been replaced by vast environments and flashy action sequences. Not to say that this stuff isn’t entertaining, because it totally is. However, those expecting something like Pitch Black might be disappointed.1. The Plot: It’s surprisingly complicated for a sci-fi film about an escaped convict with a bounty on his head, mostly because space politics get in the way of things. Basically, Riddick (Vin Diesel) goes from trying to evade bounty hunters to trying to evade the Necromongers, which are a race of fanatically religious warlocks, or something. Their modus operandi is to attack major cities and space systems and convert everyone; those that refuse to be converted are killed. Anyways, Riddick refuses to be converted and gets sentenced to death, but escapes and ends up captured by bounty hunters. The Necromongers also send their men to kill Riddick. Now, Riddick must fend off both the bounty hunters and the Necromongers, and somehow remain alive in the process.
Shouldn't be that hard, right?
2. The Characters: Vin Diesel (The Fast and the Furious saga) reprises his role as Riddick, the Furyan with a bad attitude and extremely photosensitive eyes. His performance is neither better nor worse than his performance in Pitch Black, but hey, he kind of kicks ass as Riddick, so it really doesn’t matter. What does matter is the huge amount of big-name actors who are wasted as supporting characters. Keith David (The Thing) reprises his role as Imam, the Muslim man who was on a pilgrimage in the previous film, but he has no more than ten minutes of actual screen time. The same goes for Judi Dench (Skyfall), who is Aereon, an Air Elemental who seems to be more like some kind of apparition spouting philosophical-sounding nonsense. Her performance is fruitless and her character seems largely pointless except to dump exposition.
I have a career. What the heck am I doing?
Karl Urban (Star Trek Into Darkness) is Vaako, a Necromonger commander who wants to become the Lord Marshal (i.e. king). It’s clear that he has become a better actor throughout the years. Thandie Newton (Mission Impossible 2) is Vaako’s wife, who is power hungry and constantly pushing Vaako to do whatever it takes to get the crown. Sadly, even she is upstaged by her lavish costumes.3. The Aesthetics: At least The Chronicles of Riddick makes up for its overly-complicated story and uneven characters with its visual presentation. Since this is a much more ambitious film than its predecessor, it makes sense that there would be many new environments to explore. The same vibrant color palette that Pitch Blackhad now dominates over the darker sections of the film, of which there are sadly very few. I enjoyed the sort-of minimalist approach to Pitch Black, because color was only used sparingly and to the greater effect of the dark and claustrophobic atmosphere that the film was trying to convey. The Chronicles of Riddick was trying to be a sci-fi epic, so there are tons of sprawling, sweeping landscapes and fancy technology to showcase with the wonders of CGI. I’m not complaining though since the film looks fantastic.
Still, it is a far cry from Pitch Black.
4. Switching Gears: The Chronicles of Riddick is a weaker film than Pitch Black simply because the film switched gears too abruptly. Pitch Black was an almost minimalist approach to sci-fi since the story was simple and concise, and the atmosphere did all the talking. Tension escalated because we knew that the characters distrusted one another, and their situation was growing increasingly dire with every passing second. The Chronicles of Riddick, however, had greater ambitions. Instead of a confined, borderline-horror approach, the filmmakers decided to try for a sci-fi epic. The film was set in a much larger world, there were many more characters, there were many more new locations to explore, and it all just felt too different from what we had come to expect from a Riddick film. The story also got bogged down by having too many things happening all at once to characters who we never really felt a great deal of sympathy for, and that weakened the film as a whole.The Bottom Line: The Chronicles of Riddick is successful as an action film and as a way to show off your new HDTV, but not so much as a large-scale sci-fi epic. The story ultimately becomes confusing and the characters end up not as developed as they could have and should have been. Overall, The Chronicles of Riddick is not what one would expect after having watched Pitch Black; really, it’s basically the opposite. I wouldn’t call it a bad film, since it is great popcorn entertainment. It just lacks the focus that Pitch Black had.
The Chronicles of Riddick is property of Universal Pictures, Radar Pictures, and One Race Productions. This review was written by me.
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