Gotta love summer blockbuster season. Until just last week, I was really loathing Chronicles of Riddick. Honestly. Just seemed so pushed and shoved.
But, then again, I’d never (and still haven’t) seen Pitch Black. Keep that in mind.
So, with that in mind, I really, really, really enjoyed Chronicles. I can’t say it’s the best movie ever, or even in my top 10, but totally worth seeing. Besides about 20 minutes of Hollywood special effects, crappy plot and silly characters, Riddick was fantastic.
Probably the best part, and from what I hear it’s what a lot of folk loved about Pitch Black, was the characters. Sure, Riddick (with some of the best one-liners ever) was great, but many of the characters were strong, memorable and developed really well over the course of the film. Most of the film, in fact, was centered around the inter-character conflicts.
Good stuff.
Also good was the sound track, effects and overall concept. Ending was mildly surprising (though apparently not as much so as Pitch Black) and, really I wouldn’t be surprised to see a third movie in the series. I’d be there. With a hat. A black one 
June 18th, 2004 at 11:04 pm
I just watched this today. Keeping in mind that I am a big fan of Pitch Black I would have to say that Chronicles was pretty much what I expected from a Vin Diesel movie – lots of action, ruthless killing and unreal ‘holoywood super stunt’ scenes.
The story line was a total variation from Pitch Black however, there was no relation to the planet or those ’see-in-the-dark’ beasts that were in the 1st one apart from Riddick meeting up with two of the charecters and us seeing how they developed.
Overall though it was a good movie – perfect match for a friday night and a greasy pizza!