David Twohy's original Pitch Black was a bit of a sleeper hit. It took a lot of people by surprise with its effective blend of horror and science fiction and it had a nice, sleek look and plenty of tense moments. The plot moved along at a brisk pace and through in a couple of interesting twists along the way. I don't know that I'd say it was a classic of the genre, but it was a fun movie that still holds up well. When Twohy was rumored to be teaming up with hunk of the month Vin Diesel, who would be reprising his role of Richard Riddick from the first film, in a sequel entitled The Chronicles Of Riddick, a lot of people were pretty excited about the news, hoping for a repeat of the first films success.

Whereas the original Pitch Black took place on a small scale and in a relatively small (albeit very open) environment, here Twohy expands Riddick's universe to almost George Lucas-esque proportions. The film is set in an entire universe full of interesting alien races and creatures, all manner of bizarre otherworldy environments that vary from planet to planet, and a whole lot of different factions milling about inside of it vying for different political powers and the like.

Roughly half a decade after the evens of the first film, Richard Riddick is now a wanted man once again. After he escapes the bounty hunters who track him to the ice planet he now calls home, he finds himself stuck in between two of the aforementioned warring factions, both of whom are after control of the Helion Prime. Lord Marshal (Colm Feore) is a maniacal priest who leads a cult called the Nekromangers on a crusade against the Elementals, lead by Aereon (Judi Dench). Riddick soon teams up with Aereon who helps him uncover some of the mysteries surrounding his shady past. Marshal wants to convert everyone on the planet to his beliefs of have them killed, Riddick and Aereon want to save the planet from his evil ways and return things to normal.

Twohy tries to install some sort of social commentary into his film but it doesn't really work. The dialogue is sometimes painful and the elements of Frank Herbert's Dune that he seems to be borrowing from feel rather forced into the story, not fitting in so well with the non-stop action that the film does handle reasonably well. Another problem with the film is that the mystery of the character is gone. In Pitch Black Riddick was an interesting character because we didn't really know very much about him at all. That gave the character an element of danger. Sadly, while he is still very much an anti-hero in this film, a lot of that element is lacking and maybe this is a case where things would have been better if they'd been left unexplained.

Essentially, the main reason to see this film is to watch Vin Diesel whup ass and on that level this movie delivers. It's clearly a case of brawn over brains and while the film has lofty aspirations of being an intelligent science fiction film, and it tries, it doesn't quite make it there. But as a shoot'em up slam bang action movie, it's not half bad. The special effects and set design were pretty appealing to me, with their bold use of colors and interesting and creative interpretation of the alien cultures living within them. Some of the make up effects and alien beings are great (even if the movie is very heavy on the CGI), but at times the editing, which cuts very, very quickly, can make it a little difficult to follow. While you can't blame Twohy and company for wanting to expand Riddick's story, maybe keeping him in the shadows rather than throwing him into an epic battle would have been more appropriate. That said, The Chronicles Of Riddick is still a fun science fiction movie. The horror and suspense elements from Pitch Black are missed but the film is still an entertaining and fun time at the movies.

The unrated cut of the film does restore a little bit of violence in some of the action scenes (the Crematoria fight sequence has some noticeable material reinstated), it restores a trio of dream sequences that were cut from the theatrical version, and features a lot of extended dialogue scenes and altered dialogue scenes. When it's all said and done, this footage extends the running time of the film by roughly sixteen minutes when compared to the theatrical version (the Blu-ray release includes both cuts). It clears up a few of the 'huh?' moments that were in the theatrical cut and features better, slightly more intense action scenes making for a marginally improved film.

Video:

The Chronicles Of Riddick is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40.1 in a spiffy 1080p VC-1 encoded transfer that looks pretty darn close to the transfer used for the HD-DVD release a few years back. Contrast levels look perfect, color reproduction is gorgeous and the black levels are deep and strong throughout. Skin tones look lifelike and natural and there are no problems at all with print damage worth noting. This was widely considered one of the best looking HD-DVDs when it debuted on that format, and thankfully, the transfer still holds up on Blu-ray. Detail levels are great and the color scheme used in the film, which makes use of a lot of reds and yellows and mild earth tones, is replicated very nicely. Close up shots show more detail than medium and long distance shots do and some of the more effects heavy and CGI intensive sequences are a bit soft sometimes but aside from that, the movie really looks great here.