The sequel to “The Chronicles of Riddick” from 2004. One of my favourite Sci-Fi movies of all time. The previous movie ends with Riddick becoming the ruler of the most powerful society in the known universe. With that in mind, and the possibilities that this leaves us for a sequel, this instalment in the series is incredibly sad. In fact this is more a sequel to “Pitch Black” which is equally slow and boring and took place on a barren planet with every creature wanting to eat him. Riddick is basically a remake of Pitch Black.
Our sequel to the bigger than life “Chronicles” is a low budget flick with only a handful of actors on a conveniently barren planet, so most sets are computer generated on a green screen. Audio quality is horrible. Not that you can’t hear the actors, you can hear them very clearly, however in most scenes they sound like they are in a small room, and you can clearly hear the faint echo of them speaking in a small space. Especially when they are out in the wide open plains of a desert. There is rarely the sound effects of wind or actions around them. Generally you only hear perfectly clear voices and the obvious sound effects of what you are looking at, rarely any background noise, so most scenes seem strange to the ear. So you sit there wondering why it looks so real but feels so fake.
Action is decent and special effects and CGI are quite good. In particular his “dog” ends up being a fun and key character. The writing is barely passable. The story line is weak, obvious and completely predictable from start to finish. This movie should be rated a 3, but I enjoyed the action and computer generated characters and effects.
5/10
