Ok after watching the ’’Chronicles of Riddick’’, I went to the counter and asked for my money back. I’d watched the first part Pitch Black a couple of times and quite frankly it is an underrated film. It also raised my expectations for the sequel. Probably that was the reason why the Manager, could hardly control his laughter. His face read clearly, ’’Dude you’ve been Punk’d’’.
Plot
Ok for those who have not watched Pitch Black, Riddick is an escaped convict with a special power of seeing in the dark and possessing trained military skills. He is pursued by bounty hunters.
In the nearby galaxy, planets fall to a group called Necromongers, who seem to be future’s version of the Mongols, destroying, pillaging planets and taking a few captives to be converted. The Aereon is a spiritiual guide (played by Judi Dench) finds Riddick and implores to fight the Necromongers. But amongst the Necromongers, there is some political infighting. Necromongers are led by the all-poweful Lord Marshal (Colm Feore) who has powers to move like the Agent Smith in Matrix and talks like Darth Vader in cryptic evil tones. Probably the most interesting character is played by Thandie Newton who is the wife of Lord Vaako(Karl Urban of the LOTR fame) an underling of Lord Marshal. She’s slinkily evil, nefariously planning to grab power like a Lady Macbeth. Ok but these characters have few and far scenes to stand out. The movie is about Riddick and how he escapes the bounty hunters. His conflicts with Lord Marshal who tries to sell him the option to convert to a Necromonger. His ’’feely’’ sequences with the Kyra, the little girl from the previous movie, now grown up but spending time in the prison. His tortures in the deep mines of a prison planet. Please...
My take
Ok this is a sci-fi film, with pretty good special effects and lots I mean LOTS of action sequences. And of course Vin Diesel. The screenplay was of course written by someone with an IQ of 60. The sequences are pulse pounding but not too exciting. Sometimes too noisy when trying to add the ’’thrill factor’’. The dark undertone is copycat from today’s comic books and a bad take off of movies like the Matrix and MI2. The camera work is poor and unimaginative and is unable to lift the CGI scenes.
The dialogues are bad and generally serve a purpose to pass time. Only a few of VD’s one-liners are good. Yeah I know VD, cant play a great action hero like Cruise or Damon but he has shown his chops in ’’Saving Private Ryan’’ in a small role and ’’Fast and the Furious’’ or even ’’Pitch Black’’ where he plays the reluctant hero leading a group of people in the dark against monsters. But here the director wants to make a popcorn action sci-fi blockbuster but needs to add VD’s character to it. Here he fails. There’s neither a human touch nor is the evil well defined to make the fight more credulous. This sequel is a pandering effort by film-makers to profit on an original movie’s success to mint money, ala Bad Boys II.
Pros
Diesel is faced with the burden to carry the film and he does a part of it in the action sequences. But his character is underdeveloped and hams thorough the part. Karl Urban is a good actor, again excels in his part as Lord Vaako (after LOTR where he plays Eomer of Rohan). Here he plays the conflicted Lord Vaako who is burdened by feelings of loyalty and forced by his wife to seize power. He and Thandie Newton, are the more believable character. Though the costumes look like something from a bad Paris fashion show.
Cast
Richard B. Riddick: Vin Diesel
Lord Marshal: Colm Feore
Kyra: Alexa Davalos
Vaako: Karl Urban
Dame Vaako: Thandie Newton
Aereon: Judi Dench
Director David Twohy
Final Words
’’In normal times, evil should be fought by good, but in times like this, well, it should be fought by another kind of evil. ’’- Judi Dench in the film
’’In normal times, evil(bad films) should be fought by good, but in times like this, well, it should be fought by another kind of evil(boycott such films).’’