The Australian-produced, low-profile Pitch Black that launched Vin Diesel’s career did not need a sequel. It was a great film — a simple idea (a hostile world, plunged into darkness), a straightforward plot (get some supplies, get off the planet before the lights go out), and a clever hook (the only one who can see in the dark is the murdering psychopath they’ve brought with them) — but it was also a film that had very definitely finished. Diesel’s Riddick developed a mini-conscience and saved some people instead of leaving them to die. He’d grown as a person, you see?
It didn’t leave itself open for a sequel, it didn’t have an ensemblé cast that could be easily brought back and dropped into a new situation, and it didn’t have an underlying mythology or plot to tie it to any other film. But it didn’t need to. As a self-contained one-off, it worked beautifully.
Now, however, we have The Chronicles of Riddick (although as most of the film feels as if it takes place over a Bank Holiday weekend, calling it The Anecdote of Riddick might have been more appropriate). It’s an attempt to turn Riddick himself into the glue that holds the associated Riddick IPs together — a prequel to Pitch Black exists in the form of a game, Escape from Butcher Bay, and there’s also an animated prequel to the current film. It’s not an entirely well-realised effort, as we end up with this:
- The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
- Pitch Black
- The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury
- The Chronicles of Riddick
Doesn’t quite work for me, but this is probably just the obsessive-compulsive talking. Back to the plot. What there is of one.
Addendum: I noticed yesterday that the Pitch Black DVD release has actually been rebranded as “The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black”. Ho hum.
With it’s galactic empires, world-conquering armies, and falling civilisations, Chronicles is a big departure from the stark feel of Pitch Black. A quick summary: a huge army of Necromongers, who worship death, are swarming through the galaxy converting everybody to their cause by force. Led by Lord Marshal, who is sort of half-dead, half-alive, we’re informed by Judi Dench that the only one who can stop Lord Marshal is a ‘Furian’ (from, one supposes, Planet Fury), and Riddick is the last Furian alive, so it’s up to him to save the day. If he wants to. Which he doesn’t, really. Bet he will in the end, though!
In terms of Riddick taking on more responsibility and maturity — from looking after a handful of people in Pitch Black to taking down a conquering civilisation in Chronicles — this makes sense, but isn’t the direction that the film takes us in, and instead the bulk of the story takes place on a — mostly pointless — sojourn to a prison planet on Crematoria (where it’s very hot), where we find that Jack, the girl from Pitch Black and now a beautiful woman, is being held. Riddick and Jack’s escape across the surface of the planet is extremely reminiscent of the film’s prequel, though instead of a furious race to reach safety before darkness falls, it’s a furious race to reach safety before sunrise sautés them all. It’s an impressive sequence that works very well, giving Vin ample opportunity to flex his bulging muscles, get all sweaty, and, at one point, impersonate Tarzan.
Almost everything that made Pitch Black so successful is absent from Chronicles. The plot is both more complicated and less intelligent, and there’s no clever hook this time around. Little is made of the fact that Riddick can see in the dark, a skill that he uses only briefly near the beginning of the film, nor is he easily blinded by strong light anymore, happily gazing towards 700° sunrises and not flinching. He doesn’t feel anywhere near as dangerous any more, either — you know that he’s not going to kill anybody unless they really deserved it.
You can’t really fault Vin’s performance, though some of the lines he has can make you cringe — “It’s been a long time since I smelled beautiful”, he growls at his female captor, presumably referring to her being a bit of a stunner, not himself having just used a cleanser. Judi Dench, having been seduced into playing a role by Vin filling her dressing room with flowers, is…well, Judi Dench. It’s always nice to see a bit of British thespian talent in a film, but it’s not always a mark of quality — after all, look how many respected actors starred in Caligula.
On the whole, the film is entertaining at times, but mostly disappointing, not sitting comfortably alongside Pitch Black, nor achieving the spectacle required to convincingly compete with other, better big-budget action sci-fi epics. It’s a snack to consume between summer and winter blockbusters, that, ultimately, won’t fill you up.