The Chronicles of Riddick

December 10, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 119 min Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

The Chronicles of Riddick is the sequel to 2000’s largely overlooked Pitch Black. However, other than Riddick and a couple of other carry over characters, the stories are not really related. You do not need to see Pitch Black before seeing Riddick. But then, do you really need to see Riddick at all?

Vin Diesel is back in the role of Riddick. The movie starts with a quote that says “In normal times, evil should be fought by good, but in times like this, well, it should be fought by another kind of evil.” We ‘ve never been told everything that Riddick is wanted for in either movie, but we know there are bounties on his head, and he has been thrown in and escaped from every prison in the galaxy. We also know that he is a major bad ass.

In the convoluted plot that ties all of the CGI fight sequences together, we find a race called “Neuromongers” is destroying every planet in the universe. Led by an emporer who is half dead, half alive, they assimilate all members of each planet who will join them and destroy whatever is left. Come to find out the one true threat to the emperor is a race called the Furions, which he thinks he has eliminated. But there’s one left….you can guess who.

The special effects in this film are big if not spectacular. And we enjoy the one liners from Riddick early in the movie. But the story, character development, and such is inferior to the average porn flick. Yes, believe it or not, even we get bored with action, fight sequences and special effects if you hammer us with them for 2 hours straight.

We really like Vin Diesel. Ironically, although we praised him a bit in our review of Pitch Black, we actually poked fun at the fact he was an unknown with no drawing power then. His screen presence and talent cant be denied, and he is now the draw for The Chronicles of Riddick. However, other than his two hits with Rob Cohen (XXX and The Fast and The Furious) Vin’s been whiffing a lot. Because of the very weak storyline, we think he has swung at one in the dirt this time. We give it 2 stars, wait for DVD, there’s better summer movies out there to see on the big screen.

The Chronicles of Riddick