I liked this movie. Nice special effects, humorous dialogues, action... in a word - enjoyable. But is this really Sci-Fi? The unexplained "half alive and half... something else" attribute of Lord Marshal reduces a little bit the scientific aspect of the movie, but this can be forgiven.

 

A week after watching "The Chronicles of Riddick" I also watched Solaris (2002). I am a big fan of science fiction and I also read Stanislav Lem's novel. After watching both movies I asked myself which of them is "more Sci-Fi" and which of them I liked more. I admit that from a point of view "Solaris" is a more "scientific" Sci-Fi (it even features a dialogue mentioning "subatomic particles") and also is psychologically more complex, but I really liked "The Chronicles of Riddick" more. Because watching this movie made me really feel like watching a Sci-Fi movie, while Solaris looked to me more like a psychological drama and almost not at all Sci-Fi.Some of you could think I'm too kind and nice in judging this movie.

O.K, Vin Diesel is maybe not the most expressive actor but it is kind of "cool" and is suited for playing Riddick. And maybe Jack/Kyra character is superficially built. And I'm sure there are a lot other things to be said against  this movie. But what really counts is if you enjoyed watching the movie. And I did, So it's a 10 of 10 from me.

Trivia (Anecdotes)

 

-Judi Dench's dress was made from crushed Swarovski crystal. 

 

-It was shipped to theatres under the name "D Shoes". 

 

-According to the Newcastle (Australia) Herald, Australian Rhiana Griffith auditioned to reprise her role of "Jack" from Pitch black (renamed "Kyra" for Les chroniques de Riddick). It came down to top-level auditions. Vin Diesel was behind Griffith but told her she had to "toughen up". Griffith got a trainer and learned kickboxing but only had three weeks to prepare for auditions. Alexa Davalos got the role.

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Griffith did give her voice to Les chroniques de Riddick: Dark Fury, the animated short which is intended to bridge the years between Pitch black and Les chroniques de Riddick. 

 

-Vin Diesel wanted Judi Dench to play Aereon, and went to great lengths to get her. A long-time fan of Dench, he had her dressing room filled with bouquets of flowers, and also advised her that they could not begin casting the movie until she agreed to accept the role. 

 

-After the original Pitch black proved a success on DVD, Universal became interested in making a sequel. Writer/director David Twohy wrote the screenplays for not one, but three sequels. He and Vin Diesel put them into separate leather binders and presented them to Universal, along with the key for the first binder. 

 

-Costume designer Ellen Mirojnick replaced another designer who had worked on the film for eight months with only 10 weeks before shooting. 

 

-The fighting style used by Riddick is a messy variation of the martial art Kali. Kali is characterized by straightforward, powerful attacks, and often is used with blunt weapons like a staff or two pieces of bamboo (called Kali sticks). 

 

-In the scene where Toombs discusses where he should take Riddick in custody he mentions Butcher Bay. This is a reference to the video game The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. In this game Riddick escapes that prison. 

 

-The fight scene between Riddick, the Mercs, and the Necromongers at the ship's hangar on Crematoria was filmed on Vin Diesel's birthday. 

 

-The Necromonger statues are based on the sculptures of Adolfo Wildt. 

 

-It took 12 hours to sew the armor on Lord Marshal's costume. !!!?

 

 

 

-The Planet UV6 is made up of land areas called "Fingerprint Terrain". The majority of the effects work for the scenes on this planet were done by "Rhythm and Hues" in Marina Del Rey, California in April and May of 2004. 

 

-There were four complete rooms built on set for Imam's house in New Mecca. They were built in a modular way so that walls could be removed at any time to get shots from every 

angle. 

 

-Hundreds of extras went through basic military training and drills for added uniformity and realism. 

 

-The actors inside the Lensor costumes were skilled in body movement, some were from Cirque Du Soleil. 

 

-Linus Roache originally auditioned for the part of Vaako, but David Twohy immediately saw him instead as the Purifier. 

 

-The entire film was shot at Mammoth Studios in Burnaby British Columbia, a former Sears warehouse. The studio is only smaller than all of the stages on the Universal Studios lot - 

310,000 square feet. 

 

-The line, "Now look at you... all back of the bus and shit," was not originally supposed to be said by Toombs, but Nick Chinlund approached David Twohy and asked if he could be given the line because he really liked it. 

 

-Nick Chinlund apparently really enjoyed the Toombs character. He enjoyed it so much, in fact, that he began writing a Merc Cookbook.(Livret du mercenaire)

 

-Doing a stunt on the set for Planet UV6, Nick Chinlund accidentally swallowed one of his fake teeth. 

 

-Keith David worked for a total of 12 days to complete his part in the film. 

 

 

With a title like The Chronicles of Riddick, one can assume that David Twohy's movie comes with lofty aspirations. Indeed, there are hints of a complex, involving story here. 

 

Unfortunately, too many of the nuances are drowned out by incessant, repetitive action, pointless running around,and computer graphics overindulgence.So,although The Chronicles of Riddick offers its share of solidly entertaining moments, it doesn't hold together as a single, coherent motion picture experience. Too often, it simply makes no sense.

 

We were first introduced to Riddick (Vin Diesel) in 2000's Pitch Black, Twohy's ingenious and engaging Alien knock-off. That movie laid an egg at the box office, earning less than $40 million, but gained a following on home video. That, coupled with Diesel's enthusiasm to return to the role, got The Chronicles of Riddick off the ground. What keeps it from truly taking flight, however, is the film's lack of a logical, reasonable structure. As a futuristic action movie, The Chronicles of Riddick dazzles with impressive visuals and a few kinetic fight scenes. 

 

But as a work of science fiction, it's largely a failure, because it is occasionally impossible to figure out what's going on.The film opens about five years after the events in Pitch Black, and Riddick is on the run from bounty hunters again. His latest tussle with a group of "mercs" leads him back to his old pal Inam (Keith David), who has learned from the prophesy of the Air Elemental, Aereon (Judi Dench), that Riddick may be the only one to stop the warmongering Necromongers and their near-invincible Lord Marshall (Colm Feore).

 

The Necromongers are about to lay waste to Inam's planet, and Riddick arrives just in time… to be unable to stop much of anything. Soon, he's on his way to a penal planet to locate Jack, the teenage girl he saved in the previous movie. Jack has changed a lot in five years. She now goes by the name of Kyra, is played by a different actress (Alexa Davalos), and has become just as cold and cynical as her mentor.If the two of them can escape from the prison, they'll end up teaming up against the Necromongers, but that's a big "if," since there's a lot of running around, climbing, and shooting involved to succeed.

 

The Chronicles of Riddick boasts a striking look. The cinematographer is different (Hugh Johnson), but he follows the approach of Pitch Black by employing various color filters to indicate mood swings and lighting changes from planet to planet. The number of special effects has been greatly increased from Pitch Black, but that's not necessarily a good thing. 

 

Some of the most complex shots, including one near the opening when the Necromongers lay waste to a planet, look computer generated. Visually, a viewer should never confuse a motion picture with a computer game. That was a major flaw in The Matrix Revolutions as well.Much of the film's middle section, which concentrates on Riddick's adventures on the penal planet, are unnecessary to the overall plot, and they steal valuable time that could have been better spent on expanding the situation with the Necromongers. Also, a little more exposition should have been employed to expand upon the nature and goals of Aereon who  doesn't seem to serve much more of a useful purpose than to give Dame Judi Dench an opportunity to appear in a science fiction movie.

 

 

The penal planet scenes become especially tedious during the escape, when Riddick and company have to outrun a rising sun before it burns them to a crisp. Once again, a lot of what happens during this sequence doesn't make much sense, but I suppose we're supposed to forgive Twohy because we're into the action and rooting for the characters. That's a flimsy excuse for gaping plot holes, and not a particularly strong reason for the inclusion of a 15 minutes segment whose lone purpose appears to be padding the running length.

 

The Chronicles of Riddick proves how valuable a commodity Vin Diesel can be when he is used properly. Recently, with duds like A Man Apart, Diesel has been losing both popularity and credibility as an action star. But, once again playing Riddick, he has returned to top form - the charismatic anti-hero who can growl one-liners (most of which are expectedly cheesy), snap bad guys in two, out-grunt his opponents, and accidentally save a civilization or two. Diesel understands this character, and, despite the lapse of four years, he hasn't missed a beat. This is the same guy who splattered bugs in Pitch Black.

 

The other actor worth noting is Alexa Davalos, who gives an untamed interpretation of Jack/Kyra. Although there's an element of feral sensuality in Davalos' portrayal, the film wisely keeps any potential sexual energy between her and Diesel at arm's length. They're playing big brother/little sister, not would-be lovers. Colm Feore, the Canadian actor, is inadequate as the Lord Marshall. "Intimidating" is not a word one would ever use to describe Feore, yet that's precisely what's required of him here, and he isn't capable of delivering. Je me serai volontiers passé de cet acteur 

 

Supporting actors include an underused Thandie Newton (as the scheming wife of a Necromonger captain), Judi Dench (whose ethereal character serves no useful purpose), and Keith David (whose Inam isn't around for very long).Tant mieux...lui,moins j e le vois

 

It's hard to determine whether the movie's main problems are the result of sloppy scripting, inconsistent editing, or a combination of the two. But it's clear that the final cut of The Chronicles of Riddick fails to attain its full glory in large part because of its frustrating unevenness. The film is adequate for those who want to spend a couple more hours with one of the most interesting science fiction characters in recent years, but the story lacks the lean, single-minded focus of Pitch Black, and it suffers because of it.( je n'aime pas Pitch Black. C'est un film d''angoisse ) 

 

Although the ending hints at what might happen during another volume of Riddick's adventures, it's questionable whether that tale will be told. The Chronicles of Riddick isn't solid enough to earn a sequel.