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Chronicles of Riddick

I enjoyed the movie Pitch Black for what it was. When I saw the trailers for Chronicles of Riddick, I noticed how elaborate the new movie seemed in comparison with the old. That worried me. But I kept up hope and went to see COR. And, of course, I was disappointed.

It's not that I didn't like it at all. I thought it was entertaining. I actually still like the character of Riddick.

What I had a problem with was: insane editing, over the top acting, and incomplete storylines (as pointed out by Ebert).

The editing was horrible. Especially in the fight scenes, the flashing sequences left me wondering in what proximity the characters were to each other, or even where they were.

What I liked about Pitch Black was its simplicity in style. The lead was a very animalistic person who approached things simply. The direction didn't need flare - the story and characters were enough. In this movie, it was as if they had to do everything extravagantly, and with a higher budget come the stupid things to focus on: how many shots of Diesel looking strong do we need? I get it - the man has muscles!

Thandie Newman (Dame Vaako) seems to have lost talent rather than building it up. She's gone from the subtle woman of a Bertolucci film to on overblown, ridiculous character. Vaako is the epitome of terrible acting. And what is Judi Dench doing in the middle of all this? Sticking out like a sore thumb, that's what.

And, as Ebert pointed out, the movie starts up some characters and drops them for the majority of the story. Whatever happened to the little girl, Ziza? What's up with Aereon?

Although it didn't always make sense (see: running away from the sun scene) overall, I don't want to say I hated COR. It was definitely entertaining, but it seems to have lost the quality with its bigger budget.

Posted by wendytime at June 17, 2004 12:46 PM | TrackBack