Kevin's Watch

I finally saw Chronicles of Riddick tonight. I'd been looking forward to it, because I really like Pitch Black and I thought Richard B Riddick was a character with potential. Sadly, the increased budget combined with the current fame of Vin Diesel seems to have robbed the evil Mr Riddick of everything that made him a good character.

I'm going to include a few spoilers for Pitch Black, so if you haven't seen it: 1) Do so 2) Read no further. There are also Chronicles of Riddick spoilers, but that's no great loss.

One of the main things I like about Pitch Black is the nifty sidestepping of cliche. It keeps heading towards cliche, but then suddenly dodging it at the last moment. Chronicles employs the opposite method. It's quite predictable, definitely cheesy, and unfortunately laden with hackneyed "drama". Why does the mysteriously merciful enemy soldier walk out into the blazing 700 degree sun to die, rather than flying away with Riddick in the space vessel that is right there? Simply because it's cheesily dramatic.
Then, of course, there's Riddick himself. Another thing I like about Pitch Black is the fact that Riddick isn't reformed at the end. He's still a vicious, self-interesting killer. He's an opportunist and a survivor, but certainly no hero. And then there's the whole thing about his belief in God ("You're wrong, Father. I absolutely believe in God, and I absolutely hate the f*@#er"), not to mention his dismay that Fry actually died to save him. There was the potential for tortured depth there, and I was intrigued by the idea (implied in the above "God scene") that his time in a hellish underground prison actually eroded the last of his humanity and made him worse.
But, despite the plentiful promise he displayed in Pitch Black, Chronicles of Riddick sees the universe's most interesting convict turn into a cliched hero. No depth, no evil, none of his characterisic opportunism. Just heroics.

That's not to say there was nothing good about it. If you want a low maintenance action flick, you can do a lot worse. The concepts are good, and the designs are resonably original, and certainly lavish. There are a few moments of true Riddickness in there too: his yo-yo style escape from a rope being one, and the teacup scene another. But they were too sparse to save this film from shameful mediocrity.

Anyone else seen it? Anything to add?

I saw it, thought it was okay. It doesn't have any of the originality that Pitch Black did (or The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black, as it's now been renamed), but it's an entertaining, mindless action movie. The Necromonger who killed himself on Crematoria (did anyone else notice the Robert Jordanesque overly-appropriate names in the film?) was a Furyan (see previous comment) like Riddick. I think the implication was that he chose to die rather than return and be made to serve the Necromongers again.

I wasn't really convinced that Kyra was the same character we'd seen in Pitch Black, though. It reminded me a bit of the change in Clarice Starling between Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal; the character was completely different, but the premise of the second film wouldn't work if it was a different character (I think this was one of the reasons Jodie Foster turned Hannibal down). That said I do quite like Alexa Davalos and although she wasn't completely convincing in Riddick, she was one of the few good things about the later series' of Angel. I thought Thandie Newton and Colm Feore were good as Dame Vaako and Lord Marshal too, and I'll be interested to find out if they will be involved in the (inevitable sequel)

I quite liked the ending though, and the idea of how Riddick will respond to having an army of kill crazy soldiers at his command. I suspect that the writers will take the easy way out though, and have him back as a lone wolf again for the next one.

The one thing that disappointed me the most about this film was the effect of having a proper budget had on Twohy's style of direction. All of his inventiveness with filters and focus was gone, save for a few rather forced CGI imitations. I still think Riddick is Vin Diesel's best role though, and hopefully the next film won't pander to Hollywood expectations as much as this one did. I'm tentatively looking forward to the next installment, which will hopefully see Twohy rediscover some of his unique style.

I agree there. There were some inventive ideas that reminded me of the genius of Pitch Black (that name change makes me gag) and I hope they'll rise back to the surface in future. As you say, there's bound to be another film, and I'll have to see that too, in the hope that Riddick stops being a hero. If it was up to me, I'd probably make him a troubled tyrant of sorts, in the style of Kain from the Legacy of Kain video games. Could be interesting.
My approach to making Chronicles of Riddick (if I was given free licence and an immense budget, as David Twohy apparently was) would have been to go for a three and a half hour epic, with Riddick tortured by Fry's sacrifice and his God issues. Riddick was always totally self-serving, and i really think he should have remained so. I also would have made his eventual victory over the Evil Blokes quite distasteful, in order to leave the audience uncomfortable, knowing that the evil was defeated by someone possibly just as evil.

I've just remembered the other two of my three biggest gripes about this film. The first one is Riddick's sudden heroic stance, and the other two are 1) his motivation (I'll come back to this) and 2) the prison (the reason he has shiny eyes is so he can see in the perpetual darkness of the underground prisons, but it seemed quite well lit). Riddick's motivation for everything in Chronicles was Jack's wellbeing, and he risked his life several times to save her, the premise being that Jack is the one person he feels attached to. But think back to Pitch Black. Right up until the last five minutes, Riddick was happy to let Jack and Imam die in that cave. The only reason he went back was because he was intrigued by Fry's commitment to them ("Yes, I would! I would die for them!" "How interesting"). So I don't buy that he cared that much.

Bah.

Yeah, he certainly should have been a bit darker. I think the implication was that he had become some kind of father figure to Jack in the intervening years, before he took refuge on the ice planet. It seems a little unlikely, given that he could have just left her with the Imam, but hey. I heard there was supposed to be an animated short shown at the beginning of Riddick to explain what had happened since Pitch Black. It wasn't shown where I saw it though, like Last Flight of the Osiris wasn't shown before Matrix Revolutions. Perhaps they can't be arsed with that sort of thing in the UK.

About his eyes, I didn't think he'd been to Crematoria before, as he seemed to be unfamiliar with the way the complex was 'opened' to let in fresh air. This would indicate to me that he had his eyes modified elsewhere (Butcher Bay?). Also, from a cinematic point of view it would be quite challenging to shoot in a really dark environment and keep the audience engaged.

About the animation: I read this morning that it's going to be released on DVD before Christmas, and does indeed cover the events of the years between Pitch Black and Chronicles.

About the prison: He hadn't been to Crematoria before, but when he working out where the mercenaries were taking him, he said Crematoria is one of three remaining underground "no daylight" prisons. We know Butcher Bay isn't one of them, because he said he has a season ticket at Butcher Bay, or words to that effect. I know it would have been difficult to make a dark prison interesting, but I'm a stickler for details.

Regarding my assertion that Chronicles should have been an epic - according to Ugo.com, Twohy originally intended it to be 50 minutes longer, and the shortened version is probably a compromise with Universal.

Shall we expect the extended DVD to be released in time for Christmas? I would like to see that, even though I can't bring myself to by the Pitch Black special edition (I already own the bog standard edition, I hate it when they do this).

The animation, The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury is already out. It's available on Play for £9.99 delivered, so I may well get myself a copy when I buy Dawn of War for the PC (i.e. after pay day). I imagine Riddick would translate well to anime.

Nav wrote:The animation, The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury is already out. It's available on Play for £9.99 delivered

Hmm, clearly the information I read was out of date. It said Vin Diesel was pushing for the PS2 version of Escape from Butcher Bay to be released just before Christmas to coincide with the release of Dark Fury I agree that animated Riddick will probably work well, as long as it has Diesel's unique voice. Which it does.

I've heard very good things about the X-Box version of Escape from Butcher Bay, but I didn't realise it was going to be ported to PS2. I was waiting for the PC version.

I'm quietly impressed by Diesel's commitment to the project. Many big name actors wouldn't bother voicing games and animated versions of their films (unless you count Mark Hamill). He must be very into the project.

From the C&VG site:

Following hot on the heels of the recent news that Escape From Butcher Bay is on the way to the PC, Diesel appeared to be more than a little miffed that the game was originally an Xbox exclusive. "That's a question I have," said Diesel, no doubt enigmatically, before confirming the he is, "Trying to get the PS2 game [into shops] by Christmas, to release with the [Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Future] DVD."

Microsoft seem to like throwing money at distributors in order to have X-Box exclusive releases. They did it with Championship Manager, which sucked unfortunately. I'm not sure if it actually boosts sales of the X-Box or the game in question. It would have to be an absolutely phenomenal game to make me switch to an X-Box at this point.

Agreed, though Fable is tempting me...

I think one has to be in a primal mood to really enjoy Chronicles of Riddick. I was when I saw it. Or maybe the movie brought it on.

Anyway, the muscular heroics, the hugely dramatic sets, the battering of the elements, the larger than life emotions, all made the movie an adrenaline rush for me.

I don't give it a high grade, especially compared with the brilliant Pitch Black, but I will certainly play and replay the DVD when I'm in the right mood.

I read the novelization on a dare. My I.Q. has dropped 20 points.

Novelisation? How can there be a novelisation of such a visual film? I don't feel inclined to locate that book.

Cov and co, you have pretty much nailed it. I loved Pitch Black. I think of it as "Alien" done intelligently. I did like Riddick in Chronicles, but really had several issues with everything that went on around him. Having Fry die in the end of PB saddened me, but as Cov pointed out, it was good to stay out of the cliche....unfortunately, when they killed Kyra in the end of Chronicles, it just became a new cliche; kill the 'love interest' girl in the end. I do like the idea of a Riddick in command of a huge galactic power, though.

dANdeLION wrote:kill the 'love interest' girl in the end.

"I've always been with you" *retch*

I liked it (a lot easier when you take it on its own merits). You don't get many good sci-fi flicks these days.

Were you watching the DVD, Syl? How are the extras? Do they have a director's commentary? Art director's?

I'm forbidden to buy any DVDs until after Christmas -- family rules.

Yeah, the DVD. I usually don't check out the extras (when I rent), but the menu and such are pretty cool. Like at the beginning, instead of "Widescreen" or "Fullscreen" options, you get "Fight" or "Convert." There did look to be a whole bunch of extra stuff, though. The only thing I checked out was the panoramic views of the various sets. Cool, if that's your thing.