Thursday, June 24, 2004

The Chronicles of Riddick

  • movie review: The Chronicles of Riddick [2004]

    The Chronicles of Riddick posterVin Diesel is back as Riddick, the character we first saw in Pitch Black. However, The Chronicles of Riddick, is not really a sequel. Pitck Black was a fairly one-dimensional, albeit entertaining, storyline which focussed on a group of people trapped on a planet where a species of nocturnal creatures only come out when the planet falls into darkness [and of course, it's just their luck that the planet is entering it's scheduled 'darkness' phase]. However, The Chronicles of Riddick is an entirely new animal. A species called Necromongers are out to invade and conquer planets. They kind of reminded me of the Borg character in Star Trek: The Next Generation. A bounty on Riddick's head ends up in Riddick going back to the planet of the only person who knew of his whereabouts [apparently a character from Pitch Black but I didn't recall the character since I only saw it once when it first came out several years ago]. So the character explains to Riddick that the planet needs his help to stop the invasion by the Necromongers. You'll have to watch the film to see how the film materializes. I think I'll be watching the film at least once on DVD to pick up on all the plot elements that I think I missed. The first half of the film was sort of slow, and I was a little tired, so I found it hard to stay awake. Thankfully, the action picked up in the second half of the film. The one great thing about the film is that the art direction is SPECTACULAR especially, the look of the Necromongers and the panaromic views of the city skylines with its towering statues. I wouldn't be surprised if the film gets an Oscar nod for art direction. Actually, a second great thing about the film was Alexa Davalos' character, who was not only beautiful, but Ms. Davalos was quite a believable actress considering I read she was a former model. [Also, I'm quite miffed that I lost interest in the Buffy The Vampire Slayer television show the last couple of seasons before it ended (due more to just being too busy to watch the show) because apparently Alexa Davalos had a recurring character, who like Sarah Michelle Gellar, did her share of kicking butt!] And those eyes, Ms. Davalos, those eyes. But back to the film. It's good, but not great. And the end was so rock n'roll that I could have almost imagined Rage Against The Machine, like at the end of The Matrix, playing in the background. Go see the film for some eye candy, if nothing else.

  • No comments:

    Post a Comment