Vin Diesel stars as Giacomo “Jackie Dee” DiNorscio in Sidney Lumet’s “Find Me Guilty” (2006), a mobster who defended himself in court during the longest mafia trial in American history in the mid 80s.
I was sceptical at first with that Riddick image imprinted on Mr. Diesel but all and any doubts were completely unfounded to say the least. Jackie Dee is as convincing a character as he can be and the performance is great throughout the movie and simply a joy to watch.
“The Chronicles of Riddick” is just more Riddick, more CGI, less story, less character development than in “Pitch Black”. Besides having Riddick as protagonist, the two movies are not connected with each other and once again he finds himself smack in the middle of a life and death situation, this time in form of the extremely hostile company of Necromongers bent on dominating nothing less and nothing more than the whole universe.
There is a scene at the beginning where all the Necromongers, facist bunch they are, rally to hail their Lord Marshal, which greatly resembles a scene from “Triumph des Willens” and I bet it’s no coincidence either.
Even though the facist master race is led by an all powerful half alive half something else Lord Marshal who commands the powers of the Underverse (yeah right), Furion and facist misfit Mr. Riddick will just kill everyone (that matters) and keep what he kills, just as we expect him to do. Honestly, I don’t think anyone else than Vin Diesel can actually play Riddick; let’s face it, he is Riddick. No really, who else could growl so impressively?
Still, “The Chronicles of Riddick” is entertaining but it does not reach the intensity of “Pitch Black” and is hardly more than a solid SciFi action movie on CGI steroids.
5/10
Not being a fan of Vin Diesel, except for his work on “The Iron Giant” (1999), I finally sat down and watched the unrated version of “Pitch Black” (2000) and “Chronicles of Riddick” (2004). Not expecting anything I was pleasantly surprised to find myself entertained. “Pitch Black” has a classic horror/suspense setting where a group of people is marooned in a strange place (here: dead desert planet) and being killed off one by one either by each other or by a yet unknown party (insert: random Giger monster).
Since Riddick is the convict and track record mass murderer in the group he also is the prime suspect and main target but is he really the one the group should be afraid of?
With extreme lighting and harsh contrasts the director manages to create a very tense and hostile atmosphere that benefits from the barren desert set, intensifying and multiplying the omnipresent foreboding of doom. The plot is simple and supports only minimal development of the characters. Something most movies of this type lack is depth and “Pitch Black” is no exception. It also leaves much to be desired when it comes to logic, so you better not question anything that strikes you as impossible.
Imagine a desert planet where there’s daylight for 22 years (3 suns) and when darkness comes it is pitch black and you suddenly realize you are not alone. Are you scared of the darkness? If so then you will get some nice thrills out of “Pitch Black” and if not you still might wonder who will be the last one standing in the end.
6/10