The Chronicles of Riddick | | Cast : | Vin Diesel, Colm Feore, Judi Dench | | Director : | David Twohy | | Studio : | Universal | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | June 11, 2004 | | DVD Released Date : | February 08, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | Unrated | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 12, 2005 | | Summary | Are you afraid of the Dark? | Content
 | Well, no, not really, I'm not. But Riddick's enemies---and by Furia, he has a passle of them in "The Chronicles of Riddick", David Twohy's follow-up to the rousing monster-mash "Pitch Black"---should be. Oh yes indeed.
Riddick (good old shaven-pated Vin Diesel doing his raspy, surly, growly thang), if you remember, is that amoral piece of space-trash, former Level 3 Max-Lockup prisoner, that intergalactic rogue who was all in it for himself, Devil take the hindmost, lead, follow, or get out of the way. Oh, and he had those funky eyes (chiefly covered up by his hip goggles) that fixed the old boy up with nightvision. So when the Going gets Dark, Riddick gets Going.
Boy does he ever: he slices, he dices, he does double flips, he twists and leaps and hurdles, he kicks and tears and shoves blades in just about every possible spot you'd think to shove a blade. So yeah, if I'm facing down Riddick, I'm afraid of the Dark.
It's a few years after the fun wholesome family carnage in "Pitch Black". Riddick has been camped out on the amusingly named UV-6, presumably chasing Taun-Tauns and making snow-angels. Bad boy bounty hunter Toombs shows up, Riddick does his thing, and ends up heading across the galaxy to Helion Prime, to find out exactly why somebody from his past put a very big bounty on his shiny bald head.
Riddick hooks up briefly with his old space-traveling Muslim pal Imam (Keith David, who looks like he's channeling up Malcolm X), and then gets a way impressive introduction to the Galaxy's latest Axis of Evil (they even bring their own Axis): the Necromongers. Convert or Kill, and Keep what you Kill: that's the Necromonger way.
The Necromongers are real party-poopers, by the way. They introduce themselves by crashing their huge phallus-shaped spaceships into your planet, kill or convert everybody, give boring speeches about "verses" (yeah, the Helion Prime people were scared, but when Linus Roache's Necromonger Purifier starts babbling about "other verses" you could see their eyes glaze over...mine did....zzzz...shut up or kill me), then burn the planet to the ground. Their leader, the Lord Marshall (Colm Feore), is also big into boring speeches and zig-zagging around his helpless victims. Show-off.
Not even the hotty Lady Macbeth-like Necromonger princess Dame Vaako (Thandie Newton) has much fun: she works hard at giving her lover/pawn Lord Vaako Karl Urban a spine, and puts her eye-makeup on with a Bic lighter. Blegh.
Can't an old space pirate just find a little hooch and a place to flop? Well, you know what happens when you get between a rogue like Riddick and a hot meal: Riddick does what he does best, which is thrash.
Frankly, I saw "Chronicles" after about a case of very good Laphroaig, and it made no sense; after I sobered up, I saw it again. It still makes no sense. But frankly, that's all good: all I wanted was a movie in which Riddick would snarl, slaughter some foolish mortals, rinse, repeat. I got it!
And the movie is indeed a pretty thing: stuff blows up, Riddick and his buddies run across the prison-planet Crematoria from a really ambitious sun, there are gunfights and massacres and guttings galore, Twohy shows off all the eye-candy at his disposal, and Judy Dench floats around a lot. I still have no idea what she was doing, but hey: the point is, it all looks pretty. It has lots of slaughter. Alexa Davalos (Kyra/Jack) is cute and deadly, always a nice combo.
Diesel's goggles alone should win an Oscar: the man takes them off, shoves them back on, takes them off, and not once does he have to clean 'em! I want a pair.
JSG |
| Rating | | | Date | August 10, 2005 | | Summary | Regret not seeing it in the cinema | Content
| Director Twohy fancies himself a bit of an auteur. I wouldn't go that far (Dune/ Farscape, et al) but his idiosyncratic style rather won me over. I'm not sure if the character of Riddick (from Pitch Black) ever justifies the portentious deification Twohy affords him, but the possibly tragic ending is none the less intriguing. Beautifully shot, the story dares to be dark although I fear it may be too lumbering and lugabrious to withstand too many repeat viewings. I do think it was a mistake to recast Jack. The original actress had huge Bambi eyes and it's difficult to connect emotionally with a different actress. Finally, watch out for a cheeky Roy Batty/Rutger Hauer tribute scene. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 09, 2005 | | Summary | Go Vin, Go | Content
| Nice movie, but totally different than Pitch Black.
Pitch Black was more sinister and horror SF. This movie is good action from the begin to the end, wrapped in a SF jacket.
Very nicely done, because although it's so different from it's precessor, it still works. This is SF, what happens on one planet doesn't have to happen on another.
The Director's Cut is big improvement to the theatric release.
Don't watch that again and go straight fot the director's cut. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 03, 2005 | | Summary | Amazing! | Content
| For anyone who has seen Pitch Black this will truly be a treat, but you won't have to have seen Pitch Black to enjoy this film. This is a fantastically written story. The effects are awesome, the cast is one of the best I have seen, and the costumes and set are amazing. All of the above melds together so well you will have trouble remembering that this is something completly imaginary at times. I enjoyed this flick throughly and feel it is a must have in my movie collection. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 20, 2005 | | Summary | Fair | Content
| this movie would've been better if they had a better actor, fairly decent story line and of course special effects. This is worth seeing once. |
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