The Chronicles of Riddick

Review by Jason Gaston

We loved him battling aliens in Pitch Black and now Riddick has returned to take on a messed up religious cult in the appropriately titled, The Chronicles of Riddick.

But wait… who’s chronicling Riddick? Is Riddick keeping a journal? Is someone writing about him? What gives here!?

I’ll tell you what gives… The name of the game is cult. Not some namby-pamby wanker cult like Heaven’s Gate, Branch Dividian, or Scientology… I’m talking the cult to end all cults. They are the Necromongers, a religious sect who sets out to convert or kill every last human in the universe so that they can reach their idea of heaven called the Underverse.

The Necromongers are led by this guy called Lord Marshal which, I must admit, is a pretty commanding name. It seems that Lord Marshal visited the Underverse once and, when he came back, he wasn’t quite alive… wasn’t quite dead… but he was something else entirely. With his new and funky powers, Lord Marshal founded the Necromongers and set out on a holy quest.

Okay, all that being explained… I think I just covered about the first minute of the movie.

Meanwhile, Riddick is still on the run. Five years after the events in Pitch Black, he’s still got a price on his head and is shocked… all right, about as shocked as one can be without any facial response… that the price was placed on his head by none other than Imam, the holy man he helped rescue in the first movie.

Understandably ticked, Riddick seeks Imam out at New Mecca who explains that he wanted to find Riddick so that he could fight the Necromongers before they destroyed New Mecca.

It’s also here that Riddick meets Aereon, an elemental alien ambassador who can convert her body to gas and float about. Anyone who’s been around Judi Dench for longer than five minutes can attest that this is more realistic than it sounds.  Ha!

The Necromongers arrive and a fight ensues. Soon, Riddick finds himself in a war he didn’t want and – at the same time – on a mission to save an old friend, the gender-confused girl from Pitch Black, Jack… who has become more in touch with her womanhood and has gotten really freakin’ incredibly hot and has lost just about all the ability to act.

That’s the rather complicated plot to The Chronicles of Riddick. I must admit, given the critical lambasting this movie has received, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

Granted, this isn’t a great movie, but it’s great science fiction with awesome set designs, tremendous scale, and some pretty nifty and unique action sequences.

The main complaint I have with this movie is the overcomplicating of it all. The movie jerks and convulses its way through a plot that is, quite frankly, too cerebral for it to handle. The result is uneven, but still rather entertaining. Even the PG-13 rating compared to Pitch Black’s R didn’t really bother me that much.

Hey, I liked it. I’d see it again and, considering it’s a Vin Diesel movie, that’s a lot to say. Hey, though, as long as he keeps making Riddick movies, ol’ Vin will always have a special place on my DVD rack.