The Chronicles of Riddick

The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) After about 5 years, director David Twohy was able to film a sequel to the near cult SiFi film ‘Pitch Black’ reviewed positively in this column by your humble B movie adjudicator just above. Chronicles, generally savaged by the critics because it was almost impossible to understand what the heck was going on and who everyone was, quickly sank into the elephant’s graveyard of movies. Fortunately, with today’s technology the director’s cut DVD has added about 15 minutes to the theatrical run and the movie is a little more coherent than the studio’s release. Pitch Black put Vin Diesel (as Riddick) on the map of action heroes and he reprises that role here. I would advise anyone wanting to watch this to first see Pitch Black as the three survivors from that little bloodbath all play major roles in the sequel and you will have a better idea of their relationships and past history. You may also want to first view some of the extras on the DVD which explain details on some of the characters, races, and planets involved in the storyline. The original movie spawned a set of comic books, a cartoon movie, and video games and this movie is actually based somewhat on ‘graphic novels’. Movies based on that type of foundation are usually shallow, short on logic, and not very interesting. Chronicles, if anything, is just the opposite, being a quite complex movie with many characters who are interacting with different agendas. Make no mistake about it, this is an action movie so don’t expect a lot of sparkling dialogue, but the action and CGI effects are well done, keep your interest and Diesel occasionally grunts emotionally (or emotes gruntingly, I’m not sure which is correct.)

It seems that a new race called Necromongers are attempting to convert all humans to their ‘religion’ which after conversion, changes you into something sort of human but not exactly. These guys have near dead, quasi dead, and proto dead types and generate a load of real dead while trying to find the ‘Underverse’, their promised land. True to many old time religions, if you don’t join ‘em, you get toasted at the giant weenie roast when your planet explodes as the Necros leave with their converts. These guys seem to live in an ancient Roman decoupaged set equipped with energy weapons and the ever popular sharp implements. Fortunately for the universe, Riddick is a master with sharp implements and is the key to defeating this unstoppable bunch of semi-dead guys (and gals). The story is still a little hard to follow but is semi-logical and does tie in to the original movie with its logic. I liked this one but it is not for everyone. The DVD is not rated but would probably garner an R just for the huge amount of violence, exploding planets, severed heads, and piles of dead guys, semi-dead guys, quasi-dead guys, and proto-dead guys. The mind boggles. The Necromonger philosophy also is a bit R rated: “You keep what you kill.” Now that’s a philosophy on which to build a superior culture? OK, the movie has a few holes in it, but give it a try if you like SF films, and ole Vin is still being chased by rent-a-cops and gets to dispatch a record number of the cast members in this one.