Chronicles of Riddick Movie Review:


Who is David Twohy? How did this small budget science-fiction director get saddled with the 100 million dollar film like “Chronicles of Riddick”? He created, wrote and directed it, of course.

Twohy’s 2000 cult favorite “Pitch Black” was the film that launched Vin Diesel into the minds of movie-goers. The little sci-fi horror film that could also surprised the studio and put Twohy on the A-list.

It was about a year after the success of “Pitch Black” that Twohy approached Diesel and Universal studios about an idea of continuing the adventures of his anti-hero Riddick, who was one of the only survivors of “Pitch Black”. Twohy proposed that “Pitch Black” be his prequel to a much larger trilogy of films that follows the exploits of his space-age anti-hero. Twohy tapped it as “the Dark Star Wars”. The studio agreed.

Now the first in a proposed trilogy of films on Riddick opens. Its five years after the three survivors of “Pitch Black” left the planet. Riddick (Vin Diesel) is being hunted by a band of vicious mercenaries lead by Toombs (Nick Chinlund), Imam (Keith David) watches as his new planet, Helion Prime, is ravaged by the onslaught of a war conquering race known as “Necro-mongers” (a cross between the Borg and the Romans with a sort of undead element) and the young girl Jack (Alexa Davalos), now calling herself Kyra, has been sent to the prison planet, Crematoria.

As the plot unfolds, Riddick is lured to Helion Prime at the wishes of his friend Imam and an elemental elder known as Aereon (Judi Dench). It turns out that Riddick’s past links him to mythical race of beings known as Furians and a prophecy dictates that a Furian will bring down the Necro-mongers and their Lord Marshal (Colm Feore).

Can Riddick escape the clutches of the mercs long enough to free his ward, Kyra from Crematoria and fulfill his destiny?

You can see the scope and passion, Twohy has put into this project. The production design, sets, costumes and effects are utter eye-candy to any sci-fi junkie. It is a marvelous looking film.

Diesel’s return to his Riddick persona is him just doing more of the same. He grunts, growls and flexes through a lot of scenes as he hates being the centre of attention. Diesel looks powerful and his battles are vintage Diesel. He is a hero among men but the film uses a lot more fate guided plot elements and doesn’t allow Riddick to really struggle with who or what he is. He just doesn’t care.

Probably the best performances come from the likes of Colm Feore, Thandie Newton and Alexa Davalos.

Feore is ultra-menacing as a sort of other-worldly Caesar and he towers over all the other actors in the project. This could be a career launcher for the veteran Canadian actor.

Newton is sleek, confidant and delicious as the scheming wife of the necro-monger Vaako (Karl Urban). The only problem with Newton’s performance is that she had no chemistry with Urban. In some ways I guess that is good since she is so self-centered but in other ways it is tough for an audience to see what Urban sees in her.

Davalos was a fan favorite of the cult television series “Angel” and in this film Davalos brings a lot of humanity to “uber-male” Riddick. Davalos brings a lot of spunk, energy and tenderness to Riddick. If it wasn’t for her character I don’t know if audiences could have connected with Diesel’s anti-hero.

Some things that disappointed me about “Riddick” were the story elements and the film’s overall deep foreboding darkness issue. Like last year’s vampire flick “Underworld”, “Riddick” takes it self way to seriously and covers a lot of the plot holes with colorful language and suggestion.

Riddick uses the word “faith” through a lot of the film as the evil conquering race tempts the populus into witnessing the “under-verse”. It is just really goofy and really never fleshes out just how evil these beings really are. We never get to know the race enough to understand their faith or true meaning. All we know is that they are evil.

I have to honor Twohy for his direction and his imagination but the film’s biggest fault comes from the script. There are some places where the dialogue seems overly stiff and there are way too many plotholes.

“Riddick” is a “big-flexing-effects-bonanza” popcorn movie that is sure to delight fans of darker sci-fi. There needs to be more passion and depth focused on the characters but that’s tough when you have a hero who hates being what he is.

(3.5 out of 5)

So Says the Soothsayer.

Dean Kish

After five years in a self-imposed exile, Riddick (Diesel) is forced out of isolation when a team of mercenaries, lead by old foe Toombs (Chinlund), come looking for him. After easily dealing with the hired help, Riddick steals their ship and heads back to civilization to find out why Iman (David), the only man who knew where he was, portrayed him. When he arrives on Helion Prime, he finds that the planet is on the verge of invasion by the Necromongers, an army like no one has ever seen who take over planets and destroys them, if they don’t covert to their cause.

Escaping from a planet of monsters in his previous adventure, Riddick now takes on a whole army, as his story continues. The problem is that we don’t really learn anything more about him.

Pitch Black was a Sci-Fi sleeper hit that introduced the world to the very cool anti-hero and launched Vin Diesel’s leading man career. It was a low budget, high concept piece that was very good science fiction. For the sequel writer/director David Twohy leaves the monsters behind and takes the character in a different direction. This is a change from your usual sequel path and a welcome one but the problem is that he doesn’t really know where it is going.

The second adventure doesn’t really advance the character of Riddick as much as it should do. Here Twohy had the chance to tell you more about the character’s backstory like where did he come from, why does he have such a murderous disposition and is he finally feeling any guilt for his actions. Instead all we find out is that he is a Furian, with no explanation as to what these people are or where they came from. This is just one of the many large plot holes that have no explanation.

The performances are fine however. Vin Diesel gets back into his best role with ease, finding again that menace and darkness that made the character so memoriable in the first place. This is the role that was made for him to play and he is what makes Riddick such a watchable anti-hero. Karl Urban continues his run of bringing good, strong, attention grabbing characters to the screen. As Vaako he exudes a dark foreboding presence, even if the character does have a silly mullet. Colm Feore always plays the bad guy with skill, making him instantly dislikeable and always memorable. Nick Chinlund also excels in the bad guy stakes as Toombs, the mercenary with a grudge against Riddick after their first meeting in the animated sequel/prequel Dark Fury. Alexa Davalos proves again she is a young actress to watch as she demonstrates that she is extremely good at action (Anyone who has seen the Angel TV series will already know that).

Thandie Newton and Dame Judi Dench don’t fair so well however as each of them has very underdeveloped characters. Newton’s Dame Vaako motivation for power is never really explained and goes against the Necromonger religion and the brainwashing that each new disciple goes through. Judi Dench’s Aereon is even more lacking, as you don’t even know why the character is there, other than to provide narration. She might be elemental but that seems to be her only purpose.

The Chronicles of Riddick is a visually stunning piece of science fiction but with today’s modern computer technology, that is only to be expected. What the film is is a wasted opportunity that has a very incomprehensible story in parts that needs much more backstory and character development to improve its clarity. The Riddick character is a good one that could have had many stories to tell but after this outing it looks like we won’t get to see any of them, however dark it gets.

Star Rating = * *

Jamie Kelwick

Site Contents Copyright© The Z Review, unless used with permission.This site has no intention to infringe on the rights of the film owners of Chronicles of Riddick and intellectual copyright holders of the movies mentioned herein & hold copyright over the movie, characters, merchandise & storyline.