The Chronicles of Riddick

Cast
Vin Diesel .... Riddick
Colm Feore .... Lord Marshal
Thandie Newton .... Dame Vaako
Judi Dench .... Aereon
Karl Urban .... Vaako
Alexa Davalos .... Kyra
Directed and Written by David Twohy



It is a dark time in the universe.
Planet after planet is falling to an unholy army of Necromongers -- conquering warriors who offer ravaged worlds a simple choice -- convert or die.
Those who refuse their rule hope in vain for someone or something that will slow the spread of Necromongers. But rebels are short-lived and saviours, are in short supply.
When things get bad, weary survivors turn to myths for comfort -- murmured prophecies, vain hopes, legends of good vanquishing evil.
But good isn’t always the antidote to evil and legends can be wrong.
Sometimes the only way to stop evil is not with good -- but with another kind of evil.
So an unlikely figure is summoned from exile and asked to join the fight: Riddick, who couldn’t care less who’s in charge of the universe, just as long as he’s left alone.
To him, it’s all the same, apocalypse or no -- this one-man army is interested only in saving his own life.
Get in his way and he’ll gladly take yours.
But something has been set in motion, and the coming confrontation propels him into a series of epic, winner-take-all battles: from an idyllic, multi-cultural civilization under siege; to the baroque Necro mothership and the seat of power in their black empire -- the Basilica.
In the final battle, it is foretold that the fate of all may depend upon the destiny of one Furyan.
And all the power in the universe cannot stop destiny.

Review: The Chronicles of Riddick

Writer/director David Twohy has been granted a key to unlock his imagination to the fullest extent imaginable with this risky sci-fi epic. Necromongers, Furians, Elementals, oh my! The Pitch Black sequel has an array of cast and characters that bring colour, cacophony and chaos to the screen. The explosive story plays out amidst an array of civilizations, including the light-infused Helion Prime, the scorching Crematoria, the icy wilderness of Planet U.V. 6. With specially designed space vehicles, weaponry, technology and gadgetry, The Chronicles of Riddick fills the screen with a newly discovered universe.
What appeals most about this film is Richard B. Riddick(Vin Diesel), its anti-hero. As he Diesel himself states, “He’s the quintessential anti-hero. It takes 45 minutes in the movie just for Riddick to understand the word heroism, let alone for anyone to hope he can be heroic. That’s cool. That’s real. You can invest in this guy’s spiritual growth. He’s a guy that embraces that indifference and doesn’t care what anybody thinks about it, who wants to be left alone. He’s a guy that thinks that anything that happens with the universe has nothing to do with him and he doesn’t care. That’s kind of cool!” the most exotic and stunning part of this anti-hero are his eyes and hence his ability to see in the dark. Pitch Black explains why and how Riddick came to posses such eyes and ability.
The supporting cast give feel and body to the movie. Alexa Davalos returns in the sequel as Kyra; a young woman whose toughness and deadliness almost matches Riddick’s. Thandie Newton as Dame Vaako is the carnal, stunning and ambitious partner of a Necromonger commander, Vaako. Karl Urban plays Vaako, the young Necro commander whose loyalty to his leader, Lord Marshal, is sorely tested by his fiercely ambitious wife. Colm Feore as the sixth Lord Marshal is the Necro supreme leader, the highest, holiest and deadliest of all known Necromongers. Linus Roache as The Purifier is a high-ranking figure among the Necros in charge of converting the ranks of the newly-captured. Keith David (reprising his role from Pitch Black) as Imam, is a cleric familiar with Riddick from their previous experiences in the Taurus system. The holy man’s goodness and compassion are rare commodities in Riddick’s universe. Yorick van Wageningen as The Guv acts as the informal leader of the inmates housed in one of the universe’s worst prisons -- the Slam on the planet Crematoria. Nick Chinlund as Toombs, a veteran and formidable mercenary is intent on capturing Riddick.
And one of the world’s most distinguished performers, Academy Award winner Judi Dench as Aereon, is the mysterious ambassador from a rarefied race - The Elementals, the race that calculates the odds in the universe. Her role in the proceedings remains as elusive as her amorphous shape.
As we are all human, these actors have their faults. Karl Urban as Vaako, sometimes seems confused and even slow. Nick who plays Toombs is a very unsure actor, like he doesn’t know what he is doing there. Yorick van Wageningen has a mediocre role in an important scene.
This story builds up from the start, but tends to slacken quite a few times. Yet it eventually settles down in adventure mode. What stunned me the most about this movie is that it draws plenty of parallels with the real world. Right from the fulfilling of prophecy that a Furore will one day kill the Lord Marshal and how he sets about killing the entire Furyan race, right up to the Necromongers enforcing their religion on everyone, parallels abound. It seems to speak of Jesus, even though here his character is an anti-hero, though that too depends on ones definition of a hero. The enforcing of religion reminds one of first, Bush making mandatory his kind of democracy on every other nation as he conquers them and then of Hitler and the formation of a pure race. The elementals, which come and go with the wind and on a breeze, very much bring to mind various characters like muses, oracles and women with a penchant for the mysterious.
This film tackles issues like how every one of us has two sides and there is always evil and good within, it depends on us which to let conquer. The Necromongers adorn everything from their helmets to the streets of the worlds they conquer with images of their three-faced god (i.e. Father, Son and Holy Spirit), and they revere statuettes of a mysterious tortured figure with outstretched arms. Though they attempt to show respect to their god by adding a visual element to their worship, they seem more devoted to the image and not what that image represents. It portrays the different faces of evil, and how each wages a war in order to emerge victorious.
In the film, the Necromongers live by the motto "Obedience without question, loyalty till Underverse comes." One follower explains to his wife that the cult leader's fear equals weakness, thus justifying an assassination attempt as a means to "protect the faith". This is so true of what happens due to fanaticism and warped interpretations of various religions. It is true that embodying faith does not justify the discarding of love.
While the theology, spirituality and reality parallels of this film is far from completely realized, the fact that a highly commercial movie like this even attempts to introduce such topics is to be applauded.
There is something for everyone in this tale, even though it might come in bits and pieces. For all Geography lovers the entire concept of the planet called Crematoria in the Igneous Galaxy is brilliant. The whole idea behind a planet that has a temperature of nearly minus 0 degrees centigrade by evening and 700 degrees when the sun rises, fuels your imagination ten fold. The most striking sequence is where Riddick and the gang must outrun a rising, blazing sun on the fire-laden planet, through snow and sleet. The special effects truly show the rising of the sun and its subsequent scorching of the earth beautifully. The view of the planet from space, with one half covered in ice and the other half slowly catching fire as the sun is rising, enhances the beauty and the action of the scene.
Jargon like ‘Ascension protocol’, ‘Underverse’, ‘Verse’, etc leave the viewer a little lost in the beginning. The terms need more explanation in order to grasp their entire meaning. This film does better than its predecessor Pitch Black. But it still falls short of a particular category in which to place itself. It falls between sci-fi, thriller and action and yet cannot be placed solely in any one category. This is its major pitfall since unlike Bollywood; Hollywood does separate its films into genres. The special effects are a plus point, and a major one at that. Yet only if you really love the aforementioned points of the film will you truly believe it to be a decent, viewable, comprehendible film. Otherwise it falls far down a chasm you wouldn’t go even to get eyes like Riddick’s!

Pas a Pas se va luènh