The Chronicles of Riddick | |
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Directed by | David Twohy |
Written by | David Twohy |
Based on | Characters by Jim Wheat Ken Wheat |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Hugh Johnson |
Edited by |
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Music by | Graeme Revell |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 119 minutes 135 minutes (Director's cut) |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $105 [1] –120 million [2] |
Box office | $115.8 million [1] |
The Chronicles of Riddick is a 2004 American science fiction action film written and directed by David Twohy. It is a sequel to Pitch Black (2000) and the second installment in the Riddick film series. Vin Diesel reprises his role as Richard B. Riddick and acts as producer, alongside Thandiwe Newton (credited as Thandie), Karl Urban, Alexa Davalos, Colm Feore, and Keith David. It follows the adventures of Riddick as he attempts to elude capture and face an invading empire.
The film received negative reviews. It grossed $115.8 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film in the franchise but a financial disappointment. A sequel, titled Riddick , was released in 2013.
Fugitive Riddick has been in hiding, evading bounty hunters and mercenaries sent to capture him. After killing a crew led by mercenary Toombs and stealing his ship on the frozen planet U.V., he heads to New Mecca on the planet Helion Prime, after Toombs reveals his bounty originated there. Riddick is reunited with Imam, a holy man he rescued five years earlier. Imam and a group led by Aereon, an Air Elemental, believe Riddick is a Furyan, a member of a race of warriors long thought extinct, and want to know about his homeworld and if anyone other than himself is left. Imam is assisting Aeroeon since he believes Helion Prime is the next planet to be conquered by a mysterious force crusading across the stars. Aereon identifies the army as the Necromongers, religious fanatics who seek to convert all human life and kill those who refuse. That night, the Necromongers attack, and take control of planet within hours. During the battle, Imam is killed, Aereon is captured, and Riddick escapes.
The next day, the Necromonger high priest called "The Purifier" coerces much of the populace into converting, except for Riddick, who kills the man who killed Imam. Intrigued, the Necromongers' leader, the Lord Marshal, orders Riddick be scanned by the Quasi-Dead, half-dead telepaths, who determine that he is indeed a Furyan survivor. Lord Marshal orders Riddick's death, but Riddick escapes only to be recaptured by Toombs. Riddick is taken to Crematoria, a harsh subterranean prison moon.
The Lord Marshal sends Commander Vaako to hunt Riddick down. Vaako's wife speaks to Aereon, who reveals that Furya was devastated by the Lord Marshal after he was told a child from that planet would kill him. Dame Vaako and her husband determine Lord Marshal wants Riddick dead, as he may be the child of said prophecy. On Crematoria, a disagreement breaks out between Toombs and the prison warden over what Toombs is owed for Riddick's bounty. Word about the Necromongers has reached the prison warden, who deduces that Toombs has stolen Riddick from them. In the prison, Riddick finds Jack, the girl Riddick also rescued 5 years ago, now named Kyra, and they reconcile with each other.
The guards kill the bounty hunters except for Toombs, take the reward money, and prepare to leave before the Necromongers arrive. After leaving Toombs in a cell, Riddick escapes the prison and leads several prisoners across Crematoria's volcanic surface to steal the ship. The prisoners reach the outside of the hangar, seeing Necromongers have landed outside the hangar doors and a small group of Necromongers are heading towards their position. Suddenly, the hangar doors open, and as the guards are trying to leave, a fight breaks out with the Necromongers. Using the fight as a distraction, the prisoners begin fighting the smaller band of Necromongers, but all of the guards and prisoners are killed in the end, and Riddick is incapacitated by Vaako. With the approach of the deadly sunrise, Vaako leaves Riddick to die and the remaining Necromongers capture Kyra.
Riddick is saved by the Purifier, who tells him that if he stays away from the Necromongers, the Lord Marshal promises not to hunt him. The Purifier then reveals that he too is a Furyan and encourages Riddick to kill the Lord Marshal before committing suicide by walking out into the scorching heat. Riddick then flies back to Helion Prime using Toombs's spacecraft. Meanwhile, Vaako reports Riddick dead and is promoted to a higher rank by the Lord Marshal.
Riddick infiltrates the main hall on the Necromongers' flagship, where Dame Vaako sees him but encourages her husband not to warn the Lord Marshal and to let Riddick strike first and pave the way for Vaako to kill the Lord Marshal and take his place as leader. When Riddick attacks, the Lord Marshal presents Kyra, who appears to have been converted. Riddick fights the Lord Marshal in front of his army, who keeps the upper hand with his supernatural powers. When it appears that Riddick is about to be killed, Kyra stabs the Lord Marshal in the back with a spear and he punches her into a column of spikes, mortally wounding her. Vaako attempts to strike the wounded Lord Marshal, who uses his powers to evade the blow but is stopped by Riddick, who takes the opportunity and swiftly kills him. Kyra dies in Riddick's arms just before the Necromongers, including Vaako, kneel before Riddick as their new leader.
Universal Pictures decided to develop a sequel to Pitch Black after the success of The Fast and the Furious , another action film that starred Vin Diesel. Diesel was offered $11 million to return for the sequel, a million dollars more than what he was offered for XXX . [3] Universal hired David Hayter to come up with a script, which was later revised by Akiva Goldsman. However, Universal passed it up for a new draft from the first film's director and writer, David Twohy. [4]
According to Diesel, the film's broader fantasy elements were introduced by him; the concept of Elementals came from Dungeons & Dragons , of which Diesel is a fan. [5] Judi Dench was performing at Haymarket Theatre when Diesel made an offer for her to be in The Chronicles of Riddick. Dench said, "Vin sent me a bouquet of flowers that were so big they couldn't fit up the stairs to my dressing room. They could not get them into the corridor. Then he asked if I would be in his film. And of course I said yes. Why ever not?" Filming took place in Vancouver, Canada. [6]
There are three versions of the film: the theatrical cut, which was PG-13; the director's cut, which is unrated (both are available on DVD); and the third version, a mix of the two assembled for television viewing, which has some, but not all, of the added footage from the director's cut. For instance, the minor subplot in the director's cut of Riddick's visions, as well as his moments with Toombs's second in command, are both absent, but the ending from the director's cut is present.
The "unrated director's cut" DVD (featuring scenes which were cut in order to obtain a PG-13 rating) was released on November 16, 2004, and sold 1.5 million copies on the first day alone. [7]
The production budget for The Chronicles of Riddick was reported to have been between $105 million [1] and $120 million. [2] The film grossed $57 million in North America, and its total worldwide gross stands between $107 million [2] and $115 million. [1]
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 29% based on reviews from 167 critics and an average score of 4.60/10. The site's critical consensus states, "As an action movie, Riddick offers some thrills, but as a sequel to Pitch Black, it's a disappointment". [8] Metacritic gives the film a score of 38 out of 100 based on reviews from 34 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". [9] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. [10]
Slant Magazine gave the film 1.5 out of 4 and stated, "Eschewing the claustrophobic minimalism of its predecessor Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick is an extravagant orgy of used sci-fi parts." [11] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a score of 'C' and called it "mostly a ponderous chronicle." [12] Claudia Puig of USA Today gave the film 1.5 out of 4 and criticized its pacing. [13] Mick LaSalle of San Francisco Chronicle gave the film 1 out of 4 and stated that it is "an inane film rendered sometimes laughable by an atmosphere of dead-serious reverence." [14] Ann Hornaday of Washington Post gave the film a negative review and stated that "The Chronicles of Riddick doesn't hark back merely to the classic horror or science fiction canon but to nearly every single cinematic genre in the book, from westerns to film noir to sword-and-sandal epics." [15] Desson Thomson of Washington Post also gave the film a negative review and said that "the muddy, convoluted story revolves around the star's cool-guy poses and one-liners." [16]
James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film 2.5 out of 4 and stated that "although The Chronicles of Riddick offers its share of solidly entertaining moments, it doesn't hold together as a single, coherent motion picture experience." [17] Ty Burr of Boston Globe gave the film 2 out of 4 and called it "a hodgepodge of Lord of the Rings , Starship Troopers , and the more recent Star Wars films." [18] Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 out of 4 and called it "an exercise in computer-generated effects." [19] Paul Clinton of CNN gave the film a negative review and called it "a big, cheesy sci-fi flick tailor-made for a young male audience looking for things that go boom." [20] BBC gave the film 2 out of 5 and praised Diesel's "imposing screen presence", but criticized its "risible dialogue[s]". [21] Time Out also gave the film a negative review and stated, "The sequel baton pass at the finale is pretty nifty, but it's surely asking too much to think the filmmakers could leave us wanting more. Come to think of it, much, much less would have been best." [22] Nell Minow of Common Sense Media gave the film 2 out of 5 and termed it a "very violent, brainless explosion movie." [23] The Austin Chronicle gave the film 3 out of 5 and called it a "bloated, but enjoyable production." [24]
For his performance in the film, Vin Diesel was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Actor at the 2004 Golden Raspberry Awards, but lost to George W. Bush for Fahrenheit 9/11 . [25] [26]
The film spun off books, an action figure line, animation and video games.
The Xbox game The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay was released simultaneously with the film and was well-received. [27] On April 7, 2009, a remake of the video game was included with the release of the game sequel The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena .
The animated short film The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury was released by Aeon Flux director Peter Chung. [28]
A sequel was released in 2013 called Riddick .
2 Fast 2 Furious is a 2003 action film directed by John Singleton from a screenplay by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, based on a story by Brandt, Haas, and Gary Scott Thompson. It is the sequel to The Fast and the Furious (2001) and the second installment in the Fast & Furious franchise. The film stars Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner alongside Tyrese Gibson, Eva Mendes, Cole Hauser, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, and James Remar. In the film, ex-LAPD officer Brian O'Conner and his ex-con friend Roman Pearce (Gibson) go transport a shipment of "dirty" money for shady Miami-based import-export dealer Carter Verone (Hauser) while secretly working with undercover agent Monica Fuentes (Mendes) to bring Verone down.
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Mark Sinclair, known professionally as Vin Diesel, is an American actor and film producer. One of the world's highest-grossing actors, he is best known for portraying Dominic Toretto in the Fast & Furious franchise.
Pitch Black is a 2000 American science fiction horror film directed by David Twohy and co-written by Twohy and brothers Ken and Jim Wheat from a story conceived by the latter. The film stars Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, and Keith David. Dangerous criminal Riddick (Diesel) is being transported to prison in a spacecraft, and escapes when the spaceship is damaged by comet debris and crash lands on an empty desert planet. When predatory creatures begin attacking the survivors, Riddick joins forces with them to escape the planet.
Richard B. Riddick, commonly known as Riddick, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Chronicles of Riddick series. This series includes the animated short film Dark Fury and the video games Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena. Actor Vin Diesel has portrayed Riddick in all film and video game adaptations.
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay is a first-person action and stealth video game developed by Starbreeze Studios and Tigon Studios and published by Vivendi Universal Games. Released for the Xbox and Microsoft Windows in 2004, the game's story is a prequel to the futuristic science fiction film Pitch Black. Actor Vin Diesel—who was involved in the game's development—reprises his role as that film's protagonist, Richard B. Riddick.
The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury is a 2004 American anime-influenced adult animated science fiction short film, directed by Korean-American animator Peter Chung, and featuring Vin Diesel reprising his role as Richard B. Riddick. It acts as a bridgepoint between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick and explains why Riddick decides to go into hiding and deliver Jack and Imam Abu al-Walid to New Mecca.
David Neil Twohy is an American film director and screenwriter. He is known for working on science fiction-action films, most notably Vin Diesel's The Chronicles of Riddick series.
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The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is a science fiction first-person action video game for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Mac OS X. The game is a sequel to The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, which was remade and included along with the Assault on Dark Athena campaign. The game was released on April 7, 2009. A demo was released on Xbox Live on March 4, 2009, with a PlayStation Network release following on March 12, 2009. Virtual Programming released the Mac OS X version on April 16, 2010, as a download through Deliver2Mac.com and other digital distribution web sites.
The Chronicles of Riddick is an American science fiction space Western media franchise created by brothers Ken and Jim Wheat and later continued by writer-director David Twohy. It follows the adventures of antihero character Riddick in the 28th century.
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