Pitch Black 2: The Chronicles of Riddick Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)June 10th, 2004
THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2004 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *
Vin Diesel is an actor with a very limited range. But, in the right part, with semi-plausible action sequences and some sarcastic one-liners, he can be good, as he was in XXX. He was awful in his last film, A MAN APART, which asked more of him than he was capable of delivering, namely emotion. In THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, the sequel to the pathetic PITCH BLACK, he is called upon to do extensive voice-over work -- a big mistake. He sets up the scenes with all the emotive power of the automated voice of a voice mail system. When he isn't talking, he poses pretentiously like a body builder trying to do a silent version of Hamlet.
And then there's the story.
Repeating his role of Richard B. Riddick, Diesel plays a man with superhuman strength. The other characters in the tale circle him like planets around their mother star. Various warring factions, groups and religions are engaged in an interplanetary war in some unspecified past or future. The universe is in bad shape, but Riddick just might be the man to hold it all together. Actually, the script never makes any sense whatsoever, so that it's never clear who is fighting whom or why -- not that you'll ever care.
Some of the specials effects are okay, but the movie plays more like a long trailer for the video game than a real motion picture. As you calculate how much money you've spend on your evening out, you're liable to realize that you should have skipped the film entirely and bought the video game instead, whose merchandising seems, after all, to be the whole point of the picture.
As the ludicrous movie laboriously worked its way to its predictable conclusion, our audience began to give up on it entirely, with increasingly frequent laughter breaking out all over the theater. However, the movie does have one satisfying guilty pleasure. The costumes of the villains are so ridiculously overblown and silly that admiring them becomes the only enjoyable part of the viewing. You can check out the costumes on the web, however, and save yourself the price of admission.
THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK runs way too long at 2:00. It is rated PG-13 for "intense sequences of violent action and some language" and would be acceptable for kids around 11 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, June 11, 2004. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com
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