The Chronicles of Riddick

 

The Riddick Chronicles 2004

• Director: David Twohy
• Seen by this director: Pitch Black
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Vin Diesel, Judi Dench, Colm Feore, Thandiwe Newton, Linus Roach, Keith David
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Van Diesel – Pitch Black
• Judi Dench - All Is True, Murder on the Orient Express, Victoria & Abdul, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Hollow Crown, Bond etc, Hotel Marigold 1&2, Philomena, Vicious, My Week with Marilyn, Jane Eyre, Cranford, Nine, Notes on a Scandal, Mrs Henderson Presents, As Time Goes By, Ladies in Lavender, The Shipping News, Chocolat, Tea with Mussolini, Shakespeare in Love, Mrs Brown, Hamlet, Henry V, A Handful of Dust, 84 Charing Cross Road, A Room with a View, Macbeth
• Thandiwe Newton – Thor, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Crash, Beloved, Gridlock’d
• Linus Roach – Yonkers Joe, The Namesake, Batman Begins, Beyond Borders, Seaforth
• Keith David – Pitch Black
• Why? Judi Dench 
• Seen: 18 April 2023      

       Five years after the first film Riddick (Diesel) is still a wise-ass macho know-it-all, a violent, lone being hunted by…whoever. Dench is some kind of wispy envoy who comes and goes and tries to engage Riddick in the battle against…something.

       I can’t be bothered with the story but it’s all very dramatic with a cute kid who touches Riddick’s stony heart etc. There’s more than enough action to send me straight to sleep.

       Oh, all this dreary religion and macho posturing! Oh, what a boringly beautiful vampy queen in a form-hugging golden gown.

       The beautiful visuals, the slight Shakespeare plagiarism and Judi Dench only help a very little. 

½ * of 5