That movie was the highlight of my Summer so far. I’ve been looking forward to this movie for months now and I have to say, even with all the anticipation I’ve built up for myself, I was not dissapointed in the least.
In fact, it was more than I expected. People say Vin Diesel can’t act. I say FIE to them, go get Short Vol. 5 and see that the guy’s really as pensive as people keep trying to write him. People say the plot was full of holes, or entirely unoriginal. I say FIE to them, too, because I thought the plot was well developed and fluid. When I saw Pitch Black, which I also loved, and then heard there was going to be a sequel, I was concerened it would be hollow since there was little to no development of the Universe around the one planet in Pitch Black. Well, Chronicles discussed the history and fracturing of mankind, the separation and reunification of sects, the conflicts of said sects, etc. David Twohy has definitely thought out his Universe and the denizens within it. He knows who’s who and how they got there. Now it’s a two hour movie and you can’t write the whole universe into that, but you could tell, each time they went somewhere or learned something that Twohy knew where they were coming from. It makes me excited at the prospect of future films in the same setting. To all those people who griped that they killed everyone but Riddick, well, I agree. Pitch Black was definitely an ensemble movie that tended to focus on Riddick, without being entirely about Riddick. Chronicles took the most popular character from Pitch Black, and turned him into a solo star. I know it’s hard to have ensemble movies (X-Men), and even harder to continue them in sequels (you have to create drama, right?), but I think they could have kept somebody other than Riddick alive, even if it was an enemy.
Really, though, it was a fantastic movie in my opinion and it wasn’t written around the action and special effects, they enhanced the story that was already there. It may not have been as intelligent as Pitch Black where we saw a lot of character study and exploration of self, evil vs evil, but Riddick still developed as a person and realized things about himself in the process. He grew through the experience, and I think that’s what was important. Another point I agree on with some other viewers, is I really hope there’s an R-Rated or Unrated version released to DVD, because I think it really lost some of the flavor that Pitch Black had. Though, to be honest, I didn’t see Pitch Black in the theatre and have only seen the Unrated Director’s Cut, so maybe it was on par with the original release. Anyway, if they released an unrated version of Pitch Black, you can be hopeful the same will be true of Chronicles.
So yeah, I would highly suggest that if you are not an overly critical and negative person, have a good suspension of dis-believe and like movies that make your seat vibrate, you should spend the $8 and check this one out. If you’re tenative, you can rent it in a few months on NetFlix.