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After my recent post on Pitch Black, decided to revisit "The Chronicles of Riddick" after not seeing it for a while, I watch this one with my oldest son letting him know of some of the greatest Vin Diesel movies before he fall into the F&F franchise trap and I was surprised by how we both enjoyed watching this movie that has it flaws because even though it ties with Pitch Black it brings up a ton of more questions. Five years after "Pitch Black" this sequel takes a hard left turn from the claustrophobic horror vibes of the original and goes full space expedition with a much bigger budget and scope to develop way more Riddicks character and adventures, going from those really dark place all the way to Crematoria where you essentially burn damn fast when going outside, still similar vibes where this time the only way to survive to is stay underground.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0296572/
- Platform: AppleTV+
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Director David Twohy and star Vin Diesel clearly had grand ambitions for expanding Riddick world, while the execution isn't always perfect, I admire their commitment, its a shame this franchise was left behind and its attempt for TV series failed. The movie opens with this massive statue with multiple faces glowering over a sci fi city while Judi Dench; playing the role of Aereon, explains the backstory using terms like Underverse and Necromongers that sound like they came straight out of the underworld or after death. It's immediately clear we are not in the same territory as Pitch Black anymore, we have jumped from a survival horror type of movie to a full blown space fantasy that is trying to keep pushing until Riddick find Kyra who he saved on Pitch Black and his heritage.
The special effects are something I enjoy very much specially when they are at Crematoria, they had to climb this type of salt mountains with the burning sun coming up, but at the same time there were many of the CGI sequences looking cheap by today's standards. In my opinion the movie have age very well with that 2000s sci fi vibe to the point it even feels a bit say vintage!! with its bizarre landscapes and strange technology that doesn't try too hard to make sense, tech that just happens. The movie has a distinct dark gothic visual style while sometimes looking a bit like a high end video game from early 2000s, creating a universe that feels unique.
The Chronicles of Riddick is one of those movies that's is hard not to enjoy because of all the action scenes, its also known that through time Vin Diesel characters had this cliche phrases that end up in a meme, this movie doesn't escape that neither. I consider the movie very ambitious at trying to create this massive sci fi universe with its own mythology, religions and political systems based only in a couple of characters. The movie bites off way more than it can chew but there's something good within all this that makes it stand out, its probably the focus only on Riddick kinda lift up the character as an anti hero, selfish who only cares about himself until he sits on the thrown or that moment when he found Kyra.
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Riddick is on the run from bounty hunters while he discovers that his old friend Imam ; role played by Keith David, from the first film has put a bounty on his head to lure him to the planet Helion Prime. Imam explains that a group called the Necromongers, led by the Lord Marshal; role played by Colm Feore, are conquering planets across the galaxy and forcing survivors to convert to their death worshiping religion or get killed, a kinda cult, basically space fascists with a religious bent, telling people to "convert or fall forever" as they keep conquering planets by force across the universe.
Through the movie Riddick learns he's a Furyan, thats the heritage part I was talk about, the last of a warrior race that was nearly wiped out and there is a prophecy that a Furyan will overthrow the Lord Marshal, this doesn't necessarily makes Riddick character predictable but it kinda tells us a possible ending to this story right away. After escaping the Necromongers, Riddick gets himself captured by mercenaries and taken to Crematoria, a prison planet where the surface temperature burns you down alive during the day and drops to 300 below zero at night freezing cold. Riddick finally finds Jack from the first movie, now grown up into a badass named Kyra; role played by Alexa Davalos. Together they attempt to escape by literally trying to outrun the sunrise, which ends up been the most ridiculous tense action sequence of the movie, one that will make you want to revisit a couple of times.
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The movie also doesn't feel the need to explain everything as the story progress explains itself giving more context to old scenes but that's a flaw too for some of the latest scenes. The Necromongers, the Elementals, the technology, it all just exists in this world without any logical explanation, its that early 2000s sci fi vibes where people were not trying to myth bust movies and just enjoy them for what they are. Science fiction should be about small stories in worlds that extend beyond the boundaries of the story and the movie does that well, even if the execution is sometimes look like having no direction, it just goes where the wind blows.
The prison sequence on Crematoria is probably the strongest part of the film, feeling most connected to the survival horror elements that made "Pitch Black" work, the focus was the idea of trying to outrun the sunrise on a planet where daylight means instant death creates such tension and it's here that Riddick works best as a character, using his wits and physical abilities to overcome impossible obstacles running against time rather than fulfilling some chosen one prophecy.
The ending of the movie sets up what was clearly intended to be a continuing franchise, after fighting his way back to the Necromonger mother ship, Riddick confronts the Lord Marshal in a final battle as it was predictable. The Lord Marshal has the ability to partially separate his soul from his body, always knowing who and what is behind or on his sides, making him difficult to kill but Riddick manages to stab him in the head after Kyra sacrifices herself to save Riddick. It is the Necromongers tradition as Vaako announces, "You keep what you kill," a phrase repeated throughout the movie, meaning Riddick has now become the new leader of the Necromongers.
I really enjoy the movie although through time it has been destroyed with online rating, I have to admin as a sequel this was not as good as Pitch Black probably because Riddick himself doesn't bring anything new to the table but its everything that happens around and because of him. One of my favorite aspects of the movie is the world they were trying to create, from the battle scenes to the escape from prison. The Riddick franchise deserve to continue its development and it would not be a crazy idea if in a few years we see a reboot, not betting the farm on it but it was 2024 trend to continue movies that deserve a sequel or either a full blown reboot. For the Riddick character itself and the few couple of intense actions scenes, that were not too many, I still give this movie an 8/10 and totally recommend to watch the three movies one after another.
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