We rented The Chronicles of Riddick this past weekend. Mainly because we had seen Pitch Black about a year or so ago on television and thought it was pretty cool, even though it was cut to almost nonsensical ribbons by an over-zealous editor for commercials.
First of all, it had unbelievable visual effects. Anyone who knows me knows I am very into 3d effects, and a few of these were nicely done enough to have me oohing and ahhing ALMOST as much as I did for The Incredibles. Not ALL the effects, mind you, there were some that were groan-worthy, but several scenes were cool. The manifestation of the different planets and environments was great. This had the potential to be a spectacular experience. The plot and the acting (or more likely, the script, as the actual plot of the Riddick stories is kind of interesting), however, fell a little short. I AM glad we rented the director’s cut version, because I definitely wasn’t confused as far as the storyline as I had heard happened with the theatrical cut. Although from what I know of the actual Riddick story, this movie should have been more like 2 HOURS longer (as opposed to 16 minutes) than the theatrical cut in order to truly tell everything.
Although at times it started to borderline on the B movie/camp area, those moments were thankfully short. Some of the scenes lacked viable believeablity, such as outrunning the solar heat, but the made up for the “Oh, come ON” factor with plenty of excitement and a few cleverly done cool stunts.
I was disappointed with the role Thandie Newton played, however, because I think she is a fantastic actress, but I really think it had more to do with poorly scripted scenes (not to mention WAYYYY too much eyeliner. Yikes, get thee forth, spook-lady!)
All in all, I would probably give this movie 3.5 out of 5 stars. It hasn’t turned me off to the Riddick series at all, and in fact, I really do hope they continue with another movie. I am also interested in picking up the animated Dark Fury, which purportedly bridges the gap between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick.
And hey, Gregory loved it, so I guess that’s the most important thing. 🙂

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Categories: Miscellany

7 Comments

Suzanne · December 15, 2004 at 4:43 pm

wow, I really enjoyed browsing through your blog. I found the stuff on Wicca very interesting, and I’m also a fairy fan so I liked the gallery very much. I should put collection on my blog too I suppose.

witchy · December 16, 2004 at 11:06 am

Hey Beautiful lady 🙂 I really enjoyed the movie myself. In fact, I was extremely disappointed that I didn’t see it in the theater, just for the stunt/3d effects.
So, WHERE did you find out about the whole riddick story? and did you know that there’s a poser version for michael, of riddick? 🙂 (well, at least the name is ‘roddrick’ and it looks VERY much like vin d.)

Puking · December 16, 2004 at 5:50 pm

Sorry, Riddick sucked. Pitch Black was good. But Riddick sucked. Even the effects were cheesy.

rowz · December 16, 2004 at 10:09 pm


I’ll give you three guesses how I got here…
the first 2 don’t count

rowz · December 16, 2004 at 10:13 pm

Oh wait I guess I should add something contructive to the post…
While I enjoyed The Chronicles of Riddick, it most certainly did not have the same FEEL to it as Pitch Black did. I’m still having a hard time describing “feel”, I guess the only thing I can think of is cinematic feel.

Shie · December 17, 2004 at 7:16 pm

Hmmm… maybe I should go and get my butt over to the local Blockbuster and rent the Chronicles of Riddick.
(I also enjoyed your site very much. The section on Wicca was exceptionally well written. Plus the site design is stunning.)

Bludlust · December 31, 2004 at 10:49 pm

Do you know if there are any books about Riddick .. like the entire story so that I don’t have to wait until the next movie to find out what happens ?

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