On one level – and this may be a bit controversial – I contend that the character of Riddick (played by action star Vin Diesel) is one of Science Fiction’s least understood players.
Yes, yes, and yes: he’s obviously an antihero, which is largely only meant to say that he’s the central character in his own cinematic universe and that he operates on wildly unconventional wavelengths. I think that there are some on the Information Superhighway who talk about films and TV without knowing the true definition of the classical antihero, thinking it’s only about being negative, cynical, and/or sarcastic. I think the truth is that even antiheroes have a code of ethics they operate from; it’s just that they often incorporate a fair amount of wiggle room to allow for them to reach a different conclusion that might best serve whatever agenda is in place at the time.
No, my central point is that Riddick – as crafted by creators David Twohy, Jim Wheat, and Ken Wheat in 2000’s B-Movie opus Pitch Black – doesn’t quite resemble the same ex-convict who shows up in the vastly more complex and dynamic follow-up The Chronicles Of Riddick (2004). Oh, make no mistake that Diesel still looks the part, but somewhere between 2000 and 2004 the screenwriters got together – allegedly with the actor – and drew up a blueprint for an entire theatrical universe to revolve around this curious lead. Antiheroes – as great as they are – don’t typically have whole galaxies revolve around them; rather, they tend to exist in the places caught between the dark and the light. While they might inevitably do something heroic to serve the wider existence of mankind, I think they usually do so begrudgingly, in spite of what the cost might be to them personally. They don’t stumble into, say, godhood: they shrug it off because the emperor’s new clothes never fit.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, then let me state it this way: my biggest bone of contention with Chronicles is that its makers delivered a version of the character that defied the expectations of its already earned audience. Half of the movie felt right, and half of it felt like it was conceived and written for a different character. As a consequence, the box office went awry; and the promised follow-ups never materialized … or never materialized in the manner in which they were originally plotted. That’s my suspicion, at least, and I’m sticking with it.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“Richard Bruno Riddick, now a hunted man, finds himself in the middle of two opposing forces in a major crusade. Lord Marshal is a warrior priest who is the leader of a sect that is waging the tenth and perhaps final crusade five hundred years in the future. Aereon is an ambassador from the Elemental race. She is an ethereal being who helps Riddick unearth his origins.”
Yes, yes, and yes: he’s obviously an antihero, which is largely only meant to say that he’s the central character in his own cinematic universe and that he operates on wildly unconventional wavelengths. I think that there are some on the Information Superhighway who talk about films and TV without knowing the true definition of the classical antihero, thinking it’s only about being negative, cynical, and/or sarcastic. I think the truth is that even antiheroes have a code of ethics they operate from; it’s just that they often incorporate a fair amount of wiggle room to allow for them to reach a different conclusion that might best serve whatever agenda is in place at the time.
No, my central point is that Riddick – as crafted by creators David Twohy, Jim Wheat, and Ken Wheat in 2000’s B-Movie opus Pitch Black – doesn’t quite resemble the same ex-convict who shows up in the vastly more complex and dynamic follow-up The Chronicles Of Riddick (2004). Oh, make no mistake that Diesel still looks the part, but somewhere between 2000 and 2004 the screenwriters got together – allegedly with the actor – and drew up a blueprint for an entire theatrical universe to revolve around this curious lead. Antiheroes – as great as they are – don’t typically have whole galaxies revolve around them; rather, they tend to exist in the places caught between the dark and the light. While they might inevitably do something heroic to serve the wider existence of mankind, I think they usually do so begrudgingly, in spite of what the cost might be to them personally. They don’t stumble into, say, godhood: they shrug it off because the emperor’s new clothes never fit.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, then let me state it this way: my biggest bone of contention with Chronicles is that its makers delivered a version of the character that defied the expectations of its already earned audience. Half of the movie felt right, and half of it felt like it was conceived and written for a different character. As a consequence, the box office went awry; and the promised follow-ups never materialized … or never materialized in the manner in which they were originally plotted. That’s my suspicion, at least, and I’m sticking with it.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“Richard Bruno Riddick, now a hunted man, finds himself in the middle of two opposing forces in a major crusade. Lord Marshal is a warrior priest who is the leader of a sect that is waging the tenth and perhaps final crusade five hundred years in the future. Aereon is an ambassador from the Elemental race. She is an ethereal being who helps Riddick unearth his origins.”
Succinctly, you probably couldn’t have two films in the same franchise be as fundamentally different as Pitch Black and The Chronicles Of Riddick.
The first one is a bare bones knuckle-brawler of a movie, one that operates entirely by putting streamlined players through functional premise: trapped on a distant world where creatures rule the darkness, good people have to rely on a very bad man for their salvation. As you can guess, the bad man is Riddick, a captured convict on the run, and he rather capably sets aside his own personal interests in order to guarantee his own freedom by helping these crash survivors escape. Granted, not every gets out alive, but you get the idea. Pitch Black had no more noble aspirations than to be an escape movie with Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror overtones; and it worked superbly on that level.
By comparison, The Chronicles Of Riddick feels more like it is intended to be an opening installment of Peter Jackson’s The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.
Yes, Riddick is back on-the-lam, and he capably escapes the bounty hunters on his tail with the kind of signature flourish one might expect of a screen antihero; but it’s the outside universe that’s grown incredibly more complex in the time since we first met the man who can see in darkness. An aggressive species – the Necromongers – have apparently set their sights on galactic conquest, and only a decades old prophecy involving our beloved criminal is standing in their way. Naturally, the Lord Marshal (Colm Feore) desires to have any and all obstacles removed from the path of his ascendency; and this development understandably puts these two screen titans on a collision course with destiny itself if the men and women of this galaxy far, far away are to even know true peace ever again.
Writer/Director Twohy bridges the gap between the films by bringing back a few creations from Pitch Black to help set the stage. Veteran character actor Keith David returns as Imam – a space Muslim whose duty it is to draw Riddick back into action and perhaps see him elevated to the status of galactic hero – and young Jack (now Kyra) comes back though recast as the excellent but underused Alexa Davalos. Their respective contributions to the plot are a bit formulaic – Imam’s death at the hands of the Necromongers is the catalyst to push the man from passive to active, and Jack/Kyra’s ultimate involvement gives our ex-con the chance to dabble in surrogate fatherhood and theatrical redemption – but it all hangs together somewhat capably while only hinting at something Twohy likely believed to be Tolkienesque, softly Shakespearean, or maybe even something resembling Frank Herbert’s Dune.
Therein lies part of the problem: Chronicles never quite becomes what I think it was meant to be.
The first one is a bare bones knuckle-brawler of a movie, one that operates entirely by putting streamlined players through functional premise: trapped on a distant world where creatures rule the darkness, good people have to rely on a very bad man for their salvation. As you can guess, the bad man is Riddick, a captured convict on the run, and he rather capably sets aside his own personal interests in order to guarantee his own freedom by helping these crash survivors escape. Granted, not every gets out alive, but you get the idea. Pitch Black had no more noble aspirations than to be an escape movie with Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror overtones; and it worked superbly on that level.
By comparison, The Chronicles Of Riddick feels more like it is intended to be an opening installment of Peter Jackson’s The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.
Yes, Riddick is back on-the-lam, and he capably escapes the bounty hunters on his tail with the kind of signature flourish one might expect of a screen antihero; but it’s the outside universe that’s grown incredibly more complex in the time since we first met the man who can see in darkness. An aggressive species – the Necromongers – have apparently set their sights on galactic conquest, and only a decades old prophecy involving our beloved criminal is standing in their way. Naturally, the Lord Marshal (Colm Feore) desires to have any and all obstacles removed from the path of his ascendency; and this development understandably puts these two screen titans on a collision course with destiny itself if the men and women of this galaxy far, far away are to even know true peace ever again.
Writer/Director Twohy bridges the gap between the films by bringing back a few creations from Pitch Black to help set the stage. Veteran character actor Keith David returns as Imam – a space Muslim whose duty it is to draw Riddick back into action and perhaps see him elevated to the status of galactic hero – and young Jack (now Kyra) comes back though recast as the excellent but underused Alexa Davalos. Their respective contributions to the plot are a bit formulaic – Imam’s death at the hands of the Necromongers is the catalyst to push the man from passive to active, and Jack/Kyra’s ultimate involvement gives our ex-con the chance to dabble in surrogate fatherhood and theatrical redemption – but it all hangs together somewhat capably while only hinting at something Twohy likely believed to be Tolkienesque, softly Shakespearean, or maybe even something resembling Frank Herbert’s Dune.
Therein lies part of the problem: Chronicles never quite becomes what I think it was meant to be.
The complexity of the fleshed-out universe is a more than a bit daunting, even more so when compared to the minimalism of Pitch Black. In it, people mattered – not entire races of people – and Chronicles never makes a believer out of me that Riddick would, in fact, behave in the way the script required him. There was a gruffness to him in the original – a man who’d only use words when he absolutely had to – and the sequel – while still light on dialogue – winds up being built around Riddick’s Schwarzenegger-esque quips and asides. They might be good lines here and there, but a two-hour opus revolving around galactic shenanigans feels out of step with reliance on such remarks. The moments of Riddick’s various flights from justice? They work. The scenes of interacting with governance? Well, not so much. It’s a failure … but a glorious one.
Also, Chronicles suffers from a good degree of logical failures, that dubious phenomenon of ‘overthinking the plumbing’ which plagues a good number of genre releases. (Some people call them plotholes, but I disagree.) As the Lord Marshal’s stated goal would be to – ahem – grow his following, why does he expend so much effort in wiping them out? If your sworn duty is to see your military ranks swell, then how are you accomplishing that by destroying whole worlds and the people who reside on them? And just what does this conversion process look like? Initially, it sounds like what Star Trek’s The Borg do in genetically coopting species for their own Collective, but here the survivors look, act, and speak no different (they get better clothes), except they’re allegedly in lockstep with the political elite (though we see dissenters here and there). So how’s that work exactly? We’re delivered scenes that initially suggest it’s a personal choice of the captured individual only then – seconds later – we see crucified captives being injected via assembly line with chemicals into their brains. Erm … which is it, Twohy? Why would ‘choice’ be required if captives are transformed medically? And what’s with this whole business of stealing souls? There’s a sequence wherein one conscientious objector goes toe-to-toe with the Lord Marshal only to see a ghost-like essence of himself viciously ripped out against his will. Hey, Lord Marshal, I thought you just said you needed these souls? What gives? Frankly, the ‘science’ here is all a bit confusing if not downright tiring.
Despite some really annoying visual trickery of slanted villain shots that were en vogue back in the day of TV’s Batman (1966-1968), Twohy’s feature has some wonderful production details. The Necromonger sets are incredibly stylish as the metal visage of their Lord Marshal shows up practically everywhere, and there’s an expansive to their ships and temples that breath a good deal of life into scenes that are otherwise played fairly flat. Stylistically, Twohy even manages to balance the two halves of the film – the gritty, subterranean underbelly of crime versus the dark, marble gloss of the ruling elite – giving each its relative uniqueness; and, yet I wonder if it was all meant as distractions from the fact that – for an action movie – the action’s just too predictable.
As for the performances? Well, that, too, is a bit of a mixed bag. Diesel capably handles the physicality required of his Riddick, but he needed a bit more edge for me to accept his bid for a heart of gold in keeping Jack/Kyra safe. In a few sequences, Twohy even shackles the actor with providing some voiceover narration, and it all seems horribly out-of-place and completely unnecessary. The renowned Dame Judi Dench classes up the joint here and there, playing something called an ‘Elemental’ that feels more like an idea hatched yet never completed. Occasionally, Feore is allowed to chew this elaborate scenery as the chief baddie – the guy really is one of Hollywood’s most underused talents – and actress Thandiwe Newton has never looked hungrily sexier than she does here as Dame Vaako, the wife of the ruler-in-waiting Vaako (Karl Urban). Sadly, the scenes of this couple in crisis have no true substance – we’ve never given evidence that they’re these private movers and shakers they contend to be – and they wind up as little more than stock adversaries when both Newton and Urban are capably of vastly more.
Also, Chronicles suffers from a good degree of logical failures, that dubious phenomenon of ‘overthinking the plumbing’ which plagues a good number of genre releases. (Some people call them plotholes, but I disagree.) As the Lord Marshal’s stated goal would be to – ahem – grow his following, why does he expend so much effort in wiping them out? If your sworn duty is to see your military ranks swell, then how are you accomplishing that by destroying whole worlds and the people who reside on them? And just what does this conversion process look like? Initially, it sounds like what Star Trek’s The Borg do in genetically coopting species for their own Collective, but here the survivors look, act, and speak no different (they get better clothes), except they’re allegedly in lockstep with the political elite (though we see dissenters here and there). So how’s that work exactly? We’re delivered scenes that initially suggest it’s a personal choice of the captured individual only then – seconds later – we see crucified captives being injected via assembly line with chemicals into their brains. Erm … which is it, Twohy? Why would ‘choice’ be required if captives are transformed medically? And what’s with this whole business of stealing souls? There’s a sequence wherein one conscientious objector goes toe-to-toe with the Lord Marshal only to see a ghost-like essence of himself viciously ripped out against his will. Hey, Lord Marshal, I thought you just said you needed these souls? What gives? Frankly, the ‘science’ here is all a bit confusing if not downright tiring.
Despite some really annoying visual trickery of slanted villain shots that were en vogue back in the day of TV’s Batman (1966-1968), Twohy’s feature has some wonderful production details. The Necromonger sets are incredibly stylish as the metal visage of their Lord Marshal shows up practically everywhere, and there’s an expansive to their ships and temples that breath a good deal of life into scenes that are otherwise played fairly flat. Stylistically, Twohy even manages to balance the two halves of the film – the gritty, subterranean underbelly of crime versus the dark, marble gloss of the ruling elite – giving each its relative uniqueness; and, yet I wonder if it was all meant as distractions from the fact that – for an action movie – the action’s just too predictable.
As for the performances? Well, that, too, is a bit of a mixed bag. Diesel capably handles the physicality required of his Riddick, but he needed a bit more edge for me to accept his bid for a heart of gold in keeping Jack/Kyra safe. In a few sequences, Twohy even shackles the actor with providing some voiceover narration, and it all seems horribly out-of-place and completely unnecessary. The renowned Dame Judi Dench classes up the joint here and there, playing something called an ‘Elemental’ that feels more like an idea hatched yet never completed. Occasionally, Feore is allowed to chew this elaborate scenery as the chief baddie – the guy really is one of Hollywood’s most underused talents – and actress Thandiwe Newton has never looked hungrily sexier than she does here as Dame Vaako, the wife of the ruler-in-waiting Vaako (Karl Urban). Sadly, the scenes of this couple in crisis have no true substance – we’ve never given evidence that they’re these private movers and shakers they contend to be – and they wind up as little more than stock adversaries when both Newton and Urban are capably of vastly more.
Sadly, Chronicles just never quite congeals into anything other than a unique attempt at crafting something bigger than life. All too often, its bits and pieces feel derivative of other motion pictures – David Lynch’s Dune (1984), Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982), Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers (1997), and even George Lucas’s Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) – but the characters of those worlds fit somewhat seamlessly together while Chronicles drift. It toys with religious themes, and it flirts with the Life/Death conundrum but never effectively defines what its mythical UnderVerse is, why it’s so appealing to some and not others, and why I – as the viewer – should really give a damn about any of it. Also, there’s no denying the fact that a character like Riddick would authentically be a danger to any supernaturally-powering superbeing in this universe except for some conveniently created prophecy. Talk about your delusions of grandeur!
Interestingly enough, Arrow Films recently released of The Chronicles Of Riddick contains both the theatrical cut and the director’s cut; and some of these shortcomings do get a bit more screen time in Twohy’s preferred incarnation of the story. Some of what was excised probably to get a more comfortable running time includes snippets of Riddick’s dream sequences wherein viewers are shown of his personal struggle with his past on the planet Furya. One vignette links his past to that of Lord Marshal; and, frankly, it probably should’ve been included in the theatrical cut if for no reason that it gives a stronger foundation to Riddick’s character in this film. Still, there’s another bit that (gasp!) pretty much gives the antihero superpower abilities; and that little extra really felt like it had no business being anywhere near this franchise whatsoever.
The Chronicles Of Riddick (2004) was produced by Universal Pictures, Radar Pictures, One Race Productions, and Primal Foe Productions. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Arrow Films. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I found the provided sights-and-sounds to be pretty damn exceptional from start-to-finish: some Special Effects trickery might not hold up as well in today’s climate, but – for its time – Chronicles both looked and sounded pretty fine. As for the special features? Hoo boy! This is a three-disc set, so it comes fully loaded with a wealth of extras including commentaries, interviews, trailers, a documentary, and much, much more. It’s exactly the reason why Arrow Films continues to outshine the competition.
Recommended.
It’s rare for me to admit this, but The Chronicles Of Riddick (2004) has actually grown on me in the two decades since I first saw it on the silver screen and thereafter once or twice on home video. While I didn’t think much of its story back then, I’ve always – always – loved the richness of its visuals, even though a few sequences are a bit dated, looking more like a video game adaptation than actual cinematography. Though I stick by my complaints with how this wasn’t quite the Riddick audiences came to know and respect from Pitch Black (2000) nor quite wanted to see in a follow-up, creator Twohy clearly wanted to explore a more complex universe in this set-up for a mythology that never quite materializes. It was indeed grand … but perhaps not what audiences wanted from the character.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Arrow Films provided me with a complimentary 4K UltraHD Blu-ray copy of The Chronicles Of Riddick (2004) by request for the expressed purpose of creating this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
Interestingly enough, Arrow Films recently released of The Chronicles Of Riddick contains both the theatrical cut and the director’s cut; and some of these shortcomings do get a bit more screen time in Twohy’s preferred incarnation of the story. Some of what was excised probably to get a more comfortable running time includes snippets of Riddick’s dream sequences wherein viewers are shown of his personal struggle with his past on the planet Furya. One vignette links his past to that of Lord Marshal; and, frankly, it probably should’ve been included in the theatrical cut if for no reason that it gives a stronger foundation to Riddick’s character in this film. Still, there’s another bit that (gasp!) pretty much gives the antihero superpower abilities; and that little extra really felt like it had no business being anywhere near this franchise whatsoever.
The Chronicles Of Riddick (2004) was produced by Universal Pictures, Radar Pictures, One Race Productions, and Primal Foe Productions. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Arrow Films. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I found the provided sights-and-sounds to be pretty damn exceptional from start-to-finish: some Special Effects trickery might not hold up as well in today’s climate, but – for its time – Chronicles both looked and sounded pretty fine. As for the special features? Hoo boy! This is a three-disc set, so it comes fully loaded with a wealth of extras including commentaries, interviews, trailers, a documentary, and much, much more. It’s exactly the reason why Arrow Films continues to outshine the competition.
Recommended.
It’s rare for me to admit this, but The Chronicles Of Riddick (2004) has actually grown on me in the two decades since I first saw it on the silver screen and thereafter once or twice on home video. While I didn’t think much of its story back then, I’ve always – always – loved the richness of its visuals, even though a few sequences are a bit dated, looking more like a video game adaptation than actual cinematography. Though I stick by my complaints with how this wasn’t quite the Riddick audiences came to know and respect from Pitch Black (2000) nor quite wanted to see in a follow-up, creator Twohy clearly wanted to explore a more complex universe in this set-up for a mythology that never quite materializes. It was indeed grand … but perhaps not what audiences wanted from the character.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Arrow Films provided me with a complimentary 4K UltraHD Blu-ray copy of The Chronicles Of Riddick (2004) by request for the expressed purpose of creating this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
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