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Pitch Black is a great little movie, and I would call it one of the best original science fiction films of recent years. Not only was it a superb exercise in tension, it also gave birth to an extremely memorable character, that of convict Richard B. Riddick, played by Vin Diesel, who was relatively unknown at the time. It seemed that it had potential to spawn a successful franchise, and the executives at Universal agreed, giving the director of Pitch Black, David Twohy, the go-ahead to both write and direct a sequel.
The first noticeable thing about The Chronicles of Riddick (and this can be gleaned from just reading the title) is that it goes for a much more epic scope than its predecessor, and obviously has a far bigger budget. The problem that this creates is that Twohy seems to lose sight of what made the first film so good. Riddick feels like a different franchise entirely; whereas Pitch Black was what I would call 'plausible sci-fi', this is very much towards the fantastical end of the spectrum. It says a lot that the section of the film that most resembles Pitch Black, set on the desolate sun-ravaged prison planet of Crematoria, is easily the best part of the film. It's also noteworthy that this section has relatively little to do with the rest of the story. The plot of Riddick is its weakest element; not only is it very thin (little more than a way to get from point A to point B to point C), it's also pretty uninteresting. It concerns a race of humans called Necromongers who are on a quest to enslave the galaxy, and Riddick gets involved. That's about it. Making matters worse is that the Necromongers themselves look ridiculous, meaning that suspension of disbelief, which is always important for science fiction films, is rather difficult. When the Necromongers are off-screen the film is considerably better.
Even discounting the actors in the thankless Necromonger roles, the acting is a mixed bag. Diesel clearly loves playing Riddick and pulls off the character well. There's also a minor character called Toombs, a bounty hunter who chases Riddick, who is entertaining (in fact, I would have much preferred it if his pursuit of Riddick provided the main storyline of the film rather than being a sub-plot). On the other hand there's Judi Dench, who seems out of place the handful of times she shows up to spout plot exposition. You'd think that at least there should be some good action, and while some of it is enjoyable, too much of it is of the quick-cut can't-see-what's-going-on variety. It's irritating that there are some good ideas buried under the overused CGI and clunky dialogue, ideas that ironically probably would have come more to the fore if the budget was not so generous. Whereas Pitch Black showed what you could do with a small budget and a lot of imagination, The Chronicles of Riddick prioritises spectacle and effects over a compelling storyline. It's a huge missed opportunity.
The extras
Just like the film, the extras really lack depth. Firstly, there's a short tour of the sets with Vin Diesel which mainly shows how enthusiastic he was for the film, plus the option to look at a 360-degree view of eight of the sets. A 5-minute special effects featurette doesn't really say much, and also there's the option to have various bits of text pop up during the film providing trivia and background detail (only for hardcore fans). The most potentially interesting extra is one called "Toombs' Chase Log", which promises to detail Toombs' chase of Riddick prior to the events of the film, but it just amounts to the actor who played Toombs talking to the camera in character for several minutes, which gets old really fast. The "Virtual Guide to The Chronicles of Riddick" comprises several brief clips of the film narrated by actors (again in character) and is rather pointless. Those with an X-Box can also play a demo of the Escape from Butcher Bay spin-off game, which, unlike the movie, is apparently really good.
Note that this version is the single-disc theatrical cut. There is also a 2-disc set with the director's cut of the film. I doubt that the extended cut is much of an improvement.
The summary
There's plenty of imagination on show in The Chronicles of Riddick but it's wasted on a poor storyline. I'm very much a sci-fi fan and not even I liked it much, so I can't imagine who would.
