Judi Dench seems to do whatever she feels like doing. She is infamous for not suffering fools, and to the extent that she elaborately embroiders pillows with choice four-letter words on them for some people. It is one thing to be the kind of person who is always saying “fuck you” to people, and a whole other thing to painstakingly commit that sentiment to needlework.
I like to think she had fun making 2004’s The Chronicle of Riddick. At least, she looks amused in a slight, but memorable, role. She is basically the Gandalf of this, even if she doesn’t get to kick any ass. Being an “elemental”, she apparently has some sort of precognition or, at least, some sort of supernatural power. There is a neat effect applied to her where she never appears to be entirely solid, the particles of her being seemingly rippling in the air. She even floats from one place to another.
Dench is rooting for Vin Diesel to take down the Necromongers, an army which is destroying one world after another as they cross the cosmos to some place they call the Underverse. As with so many of such a mindset, they are also a religion. Their leader is Colm Feore, the only person who supposedly has been to the fabled land and back, though I say pics or didn’t happen.
I don’t fully understand their theology except that Underverse is apparently a physical place they are going to, yet which is also somehow where the believers will go to when they die. Something that confuses me even further is converts to their religion apparently die and come back to life, but seemingly not that different from what they were before, only way more goth. Oh, and the converts can still be killed, so it seems they die, are resurrected and still aren’t immortal. I know I would be like “make me truly immortal or the deal’s off.”
Things like this should bother me, except the movie is such a blast. It is a film which truly feels like it spans many different civilizations and multiple worlds. That is a huge increase in scope beyond previous film Pitch Black. That was basically Alien, with a handful of humans surviving only because of Diesel, and that is only because his eyes have been sanded down (?) in a “shine job” to give him extreme sensitivity to light (??). Funny, but I was more willing to accept the vague tenets of the Necromonger religion than I was whatever was done to Diesel’s eyes.
He is first seen here fleeing bounty hunters led by Nick Chinlund. Although Diesel would appear to be outnumbered, he methodically dispatches the members of Chinlund’s team as if he is a serial killer. I guess that really is his nature, even if he does so for self-preservation. It is what pop culture has been describing as an “anti-hero” for some time now.
Unlike a traditional, fully-fledged hero, he is reluctant to be brought into the war against the Necromongers. After stealing Chinlund’s ship, Diesel ends traces the contract on him back to Keith David’s holy man who lives in New Mecca on some planet whose name I can’t bother to look up. Let’s call it “Frank”.
The intergalactic holy warriors invade planet Frank while Diesel is there and so he gets roped into a fight that wasn’t his. Really, it is inevitable…except we first have an extended detour to the planet Crematoria, a name that I can remember, as this particular rock gets the full blast of the heat of its nearest star in the daytime, with each new day incinerating and even reshaping the landscape.
Riddick goes there to rescue “Jack” from the prison far below the surface of the planet. Those who haven’t seen Pitch Black may want to stop reading immediately, as I’m about to ruin an obvious twist in that film and that is Jack is a she, this time played by Alexa Davalos. Since he last saw her, she has refined herself into a killing machine. She has clever ways of concealing blades, like ones which retract into the heels of her boots. I wasn’t so surprised she was so enamored with blades as much as I was confused why she bothered shaving her pits while in this hellhole.
When she and Diesel reconnect, they parlay their shared interest in homicide into an annoying schtick that is described as their favorite game, which is “Who Is the Best Killer?” I do not foresee a home edition of the game. I’d say Diesel has the advantage, as he dispatches one guy in an especially novel way after that guy asks, “What happens when we don’t just run away? Are you going to kill us with your soup cup?” Diesel clarifies it is his tea cup, and he proceeds to shove that into the guy’s chest hard enough to kill him.
This is a movie with a high body count and I was surprised I am able to enjoy it as much as I am, given my overall aversion to violence. Some of the deaths may be gruesome, but they largely happen offscreen. A few of these moments are darkly humorous, and I found myself stifling a laugh on occasion. For better or worse, the characters who meet these fates are largely disposable. I call this the Star Wars syndrome, as that is the first sci-fi/action movie I can recall witnessing this phenomenon.
There is also a fair amount of more conventional humor, such as Diesel refusing to kneel before Feore, instead opting to fight one of his largest warriors: “Look, I’m not with everyone here. But I will take a piece of him.” Feore is impressed when Diesel dispatches the opponent: “He was one of my best.” Diesel is blasé: “If you say so.”
The eventual escape from prison on Crematoria leads to the best sequence in the film, as the fugitives run across the fractured surface of Crematoria, racing against the rising sun as well as their former jailors, who are traversing underground to get to the only available spaceship. Then it is back to the main Necromonger ship and a climatic knife fight between Diesel and Feore, not unlike the very similar scene concluding Lynch’s Dune, though that was between Kyle MacLachlan and Sting.
Of the movies I have seen, Chronicles is the one which seems to be the most influenced by that other picture; at least, it is the one least ashamed to show that influence. The most impressive set here is the massive two-story main hall of the Necromonger’s flagship vessel. It looks like the courtyard of a baroque shopping mall that caters to the Cenobites, those creatures from the Hellraiser series. Go figure, the conversion ritual for joining the religion looks like something out of that series. That it involves “learning that focusing on one pain can lessen another” seems to also call back to that bullshit the S&M demons from the other series were always prattling off.
Another element of the design aesthetic is art deco, such as ships which are shaped like giant spikes and which actually drive themselves into the surface of each planet they invade. When the Necromongers are through with a place, the four heads at the top of this column split apart and a glowing orb slowing rises out, a bomb which leaves a vast expanse of destruction in its wake. Some of the soldiers have individual staffs which are similar in appearance and which do the same trick on a smaller scale.
Lastly, there is an obvious Giger influence in the enemy’s technology. Everything about their world is metal and oil and looks dirty and greasy. Even the wake left but their ships looks grimy. A navigational device generates miniatures of planetary destinations out of a pool of oil which each then floats above.
It is good the technology is so visually interesting, as this helps them retain some sense of wonder after the passing years have made the CGI employed look rather poor at times. As always, nothing dates a modern film more than the extent of the computer imagery used. I was surprised by a moment in an accompanying documentary where I learned something I thought was CGI was, in fact, a twenty-foot-long “miniature”. Something is wrong when a practical effect resembles its digital counterpart.
Overall, the performances are serviceable. Diesel is an emotionless cipher. Feore and Karl Urban are completely believable as stoic warlords, though the latter shows traces of an inner conflict. Linus Roache has a smaller, yet memorable, role as a high-level intelligence officer with a secret. Thandie Newton is Urban’s wife and, essentially, Lady Macbeth. In one bit, we see her using a wood-burning pen in the manner other women would use mascara. I’m just waiting for that to become yet another dangerous TikTok trend.
I have seen The Chronicles of Riddick more times than I would care to admit. It is a far from perfect movie, yet I find it fascinating it attempts such significant world building. Unfortunately, the series would do a huge course correction with 2013 follow-up Riddick, abandoning a universe I was hoping we would be exploring further. Fortunately, Chronicles can be watched on its own and it is not even necessary to see Pitch Black beforehand.
Dir: David Twohy
Starring Vin Diesel, Thandie Newton, Karl Urban, Colin Feore, Judi Dench
Watched on Arrow Video 4D UHD (as the Director’s Cut, which does not improve upon the Theatrical Cut)