The Chronicles of Riddick
“In normal times evil would be fought by good,” considers Aereon, an Air Elemental offering counsel to the leaders of Helion Prime and the other worlds which bask in its illumination, but these are not normal times, the established order of peace and harmony under threat from a darkness spreading across the systems heralded by a strange comet, dousing out the light and killing or converting to their cause all who oppose them, the Necromonger army led by the sinister and obsessed Purifier in his monstrous flying Basilica.
To that end, bounty hunters led by the mercenary Toombs have been sent to the frozen planet U. V. to track down a man believed to have taken shelter there five years before, one of only three survivors from the downed cargo vessel Hunter Gratzner, the escaped convict Richard B Riddick, a dangerous man who when pushed becomes an unstoppable killing machine, Aereon suspecting that he may be the last of the Furyan race believed to have been eliminated in a purge by the Necromongers a generation before.
Pitch Black an independently produced science fiction horror film which became a surprise hit in 2000 through international distribution by Universal, in the wake of the huge success of The Lord of the Rings and the Star Wars prequel trilogies in the same era, the studio sought a similar property they could turn into an epic franchise, and with Vin Diesel now a rising star writer / director David Twohy was asked to expand the universe of which only a small corner had been seen.
A sequel to a hit film typically an expansion of the first which follows the same template, the theory being that success should be built upon rather than tampered with, a bigger shark in Jaws 2, more critters in Aliens or Gremlins 2, Twohy took a different approach with The Chronicles of Riddick, conscious that he should not emulate Star Wars but still creating a diverse range of worlds, races and vessels to emphasise that beyond the dark world of the bioraptors there was life and light, commerce and industry, religion and art, Helion Prime a bright contrast to the Necromongers whose dirty anti-gravity drive leaves a tainted distortion across the skies.
The science fiction of the early seventies having been either the pristine smooth white corridors of The Andromeda Strain and Star Trek The Motion Picture or the “used” technology of Star Wars and Alien, after opening on the frozen wasteland of U. V. where Riddick has remained content in solitary self-imposed exile the majority of the film takes place in the city of New Mecca on Helion Prime, an oasis of clean water and civilisation on a desert planet whose architecture suitably recalls Dune and the fire and ash prison planet of Crematoria, as well as within the soaring halls of the Necromonger Basilica and its attendant chambers of the Quasi-Dead, built full-scale in a former warehouse in Vancouver.
An audacious film of ambitious scope and astonishing design, only Vin Diesel and Keith David returned from the first film as Riddick and Abu “Imam” al-Walid, Jack now having taking the name of Kyra and played by Alexa Davelos, with Colm Feore, Linus Roache, Karl Urban and Thandiwe Newton representing the Necromongers, the Lord Marshal, the Purifier and Commander and Dame Vaako, essentially performing Space Macbeth, she plotting the king’s downfall and pushing her husband to perform the act, Nick Chinlund as Toombs and in a huge coup Judi Dench graciously accepted the role of Aereon after being personally wooed by Diesel.
The lights going out over New Mecca and chaos unfolding, it is in the dark where Riddick thrives, the killer who Imam willingly brought into his home to protect his family in a film which parallels action and chase scenes with the formidable wills of the opposing ideologies, though if there is one challenge which The Chronicles of Riddick might fail it is in the Bechdel test, yet while they remain largely isolated all of the women are individually fascinating, never less than equal to the men, Dame Vaako scheming and seducing, Aereon floating through ruins as she calculates odds and seeks balance, Kyra full of rage yet determined to live.
A closer relative to the space opera of Dune than its own predecessor, even culminating in a knife fight in the throne room for control of the empire, for some The Chronicles of Riddick was too fantastical a step away from what had come before and it did not become the box office hit it might have been, but its achievement and legacy are celebrated in Arrow’s new edition which features both the theatrical and extended cuts, the latter reinstating the Furyan backstory which doesn’t quite sit comfortably in the narrative, supported by a comprehensive range of new and archive material, documentaries, interviews and commentaries covering every aspect of the production.
The Chronicles of Riddick is available on 4K and Blu-ray from Arrow Films
