"The Chronicles of Riddick" Video Movie Review

Watch Jeffrey's video review of The Chronicles of Riddick, to get ready for Riddick.

"The Chronicles of Riddick" Movie Review

The Chronicles of Riddick came out 4 years after Pitch Black (2000) as a sequel. It tells the adventures of Riddick (Vin Diesel) five years after the events of Pitch Black, when the Necromongers, an invading empire, comes onto Helion Prime, the planet that Riddick happens to be on, trying to take out the whole human race.

            

How was the acting?

The Chronicles of Riddick stars Vin Diesel, Thandie Newton, Karl Urban, Colm Feore, and Judi Bench. Vin Diesel returns in this film and was very good like he was in Pitch Black, but none of the other cast returned, so it caused this film to have different acting than the first. Thandie Newton, playing Dame Vaako, did alright. In some scenes, Dame Vaako was a believable character, but in some, she was not. Newton had trouble handling the material when Vaako was supposed to be menacing. Vaako is only being menacing about ¼ of the time, though. Karl Urban played someone named just Vaako, and did not play Vaako that well. Urban also had a hard time playing a menacing character, with Vaako was supposed to be about half the time. He was able to play a menacing character better than Thandie Newton, though. Colm Feore, playing the big role of the leader of the Necromongers, Lord Marshal, did a mediocre job playing Marshal. He was slightly believable, but I wouldn’t see him as the leader of the Necromongers. Judi Bench played Aereon almost horribly. She was incredibly unbelievable, it was incredibly easy to tell that she was acting, she always had the same look on her face, and when she had dialogue with another character, she failed at giving the correct impressions. The acting, overall, was not that great.

            

            How was the writing?

            The writing of this film had some alright character dialogue, but the screenplay seemed like it was written in two days. It seemed lazy and just slapped together because it repeated some lines from Pitch Black, it had repetitive aspects, the story lines stayed the same, and it had cliched, cheesy lines. That’s basically all I can say about the bad screenplay for The Chronicles of Riddick.

            

            Did it have an interesting premise?

            I felt the premise for the movie was not lazy, but it was extremely ridiculous. Pitch Black had a simple premise, which worked for it. The Chronicles of Riddick tried to be big, but did not pull it off. They went incredibly too far. The Necromongers want to take out the whole human race? That’s an incredibly ridiculous story. As the film goes on the events change it up to go even further down into the abyss that it had created for itself. The story’s only turn just caused for a higher number on the stupidity scale the movie. Lastly, I talk about the way the film ends… The ending was incredibly outrageous and hits the floor of the abyss the film goes into.

            

            Was it entertaining or boring?

            The Chronicles of Riddick was all over the place with what’s supposed to be character development with dialogue, what’s supposed to be characters having problems with them killing Necromongers, and what are supposed to be thrilling action sequences. First off, the dialogue with the character was bland and uninteresting, so it was boring. Second, people killing the Necromongers got old after three or four those sequences. Third, only some of the action sequences were enjoyable, the rest were “blah”. Some of the action sequences were even boring. The film had a few slow parts, which were boring, but it also had boring scenes that weren't slow, they were just boring. The film did have entertaining mindless parts with special effects and graphics, but it was only enjoyable about 1/5 of the time, and only had a few scenes I would call “good”.

            

            What things in particular did I like about it (that I haven’t already said)?

            Some of the special effects were good in the film, and some aspects and characters of the movie were interesting. The film also had enjoyable parts, and wasn't extremely miserable to sit through.

            

            What things in particular did I dislike about (that I haven’t already said)?

            Some of the special effects were bad, and the ones that were good were only good because it would show nothing but CGI. It also had a small number of predictable elements. It also had action sequences with camerawork done so poorly that it didn't just have the “shaky cam” elements, but it made me nearly dizzy.

            

            How was it overall?

            The Chronicles of Riddick had a small number of good scenes, some enjoyable scenes, many entertaining scenes, has some good acting, some alright writing, and I didn’t sit through it in pain, but it has boring slow scenes, boring scenes that aren't supposed to be slow, many bad writing elements, some mediocre acting and some bad acting, incredibly ridiculous premise, a large amount of stupid elements, not well done events, poorly done camerawork, and an outrageous ending.

            

            What’s this film’s rating?

            Off of my rating system, I rate The Chronicles of Riddick “Don’t watch this if you’re looking for a good movie”.
            Off of the grading rating system, I give it a D+.
            Off of the out-of-100 rating system, I give it a 36/100.

            

            Do I recommend this film?

            I do not recommend this film because I think about it negatively. Overall, I didn’t really enjoy it, so I would not tell someone else to watch it.

            

            Will I buy this film?

            Since I don’t recommend The Chronicles of Riddick, I will not buy this film. I will not look forward to watching it again, and I will try my best not to watch this film again.

Rating System

If you're not familiar with Jeffrey's rating system, then watch his rating system video, which was also his first video.

"Pitch Black" Video Movie Review

"Pitch Black" Movie Review

            Pitch Black came out in 2000, as the start to the Riddick Trilogy, which now has its newest installment in theaters everywhere today, Riddick. The film’s premise is that a ship gets pelted with many meteorites, causing it to start to crash into a planet that just happens to be there. When the crew is learning about the planet, prisoner Riddick (Vin Diesel) gets freed right before several other planet’s block this one’s two suns, causing there to be no light. The crew and Riddick then have to get back to a ship while monsters are hunting them down.

            How was the acting?

            The acting in Pitch Black had some very good and some very bad aspects of it. Some good things are Vin Diesel plays Riddick very well, and I couldn’t tell that he was acting. Radha Mitchell was also very good in her role as Carolyn Fry. Cole Hauser was good in his role as William J. Johns. Though, the rest of the actors were either mediocre or not that great. The child actors did not do well in this film, and most of the supporting cast was “blah”. Some more talented actors could have been chosen for any of the roles except for Riddick. Vin Diesel owns that role. The acting was mediocre in this film, though.

            How was the writing?

            The screenplay had its ups and downs, but mostly it wasn’t incredible, but I didn’t have many problems with it. There was some cheesy dialogue, and there some illogical or unrealistic things that would happen (other than the Sci-Fi storyline, which I have no problem with), but there wasn’t much of that. One “up” of the screenplay was that characters had drama with each other and some had personal problems that made the story better. It even caused for some intense dialogue between characters, which is very impressive. There’s also another “down” of the screenplay, though. This is only something that happens during the first 30 minutes of the movie, but it took me out of the movie. Twice something happens where someone thinks there’s someone behind them, but it’s someone else. The first time, I laughed, but the second time, it pulled me out of the film, because there was this big setup for it, and I predicted what happened, too.

            Did it have an interesting premise?

            I did basically see this film because I’ll be seeing Riddick tomorrow, but I did think this premise was interesting. It started out interesting and as it went on it got more interesting. It did have a somewhat dull beginning, but it redeemed itself with some of the later plot events. The events that happened in the 45 minutes of the film weren’t the best, and some were even bad, but as I said, later events made up for it. The story gets better, it gets more intense, and there are even character problems later. The story overall was good, but it had a more solid second half and a weaker first half.

            Was it entertaining or boring?

            The first 30 minutes of the film did have some moments that lasted too long and became boring, and there was one scene where this was supposed to be thrill, but there wasn’t any, and also had dull moments, but the entire rest of the film was better than entertaining, it was enjoyable. The 30-minute span as the introduction to the movie was enjoyable (other than the parts I was talking about), and the next 15 minutes were also enjoyable; some scenes were good. The second half of the film was all at least good in every scene. It really surprised me that this movie would be that entertaining?

            What things in particular did I like about the film (that I haven’t already said)?

            It showed Riddick’s vision (he can see in the dark) in several scenes and showed the monsters (that were against them)’s vision, which called for very, very cool and sometimes even intense shots in the film. Most of the action sequences were very good, and I was satisfied with the ending. The last 10 minutes of the film were excellent.

            What things in particular did I dislike about the film (that I haven’t already said)?

            Some of the special effects that were used were outdated, and in some of the shots it seemed like they used a two-dimensional camera to film it. I’ve already touched up on the other things I didn’t like in the film.

            How was it overall?

            Pitch Black was enjoyable almost the whole time, good for a large portion of the time, had a good story, had mostly good events, had very good action, some intense scenes with just dialogue, good and somewhat deep characters, and had very good action, but also had mediocre acting, an alright screenplay, dull moments, and some sequences that last too long. It was a very good film overall.

            Do I recommend this film?

            I do very much recommend watching Pitch Black to anyone who is considering watching it, because I really enjoyed the film, and I probably wouldn’t mind watching it again?

            What’s this film’s rating?

            Out of my rating scale, it is Worth Seeing in the Theatre.
            I also give it an 8/10 on the “out of 10” scale.
            On the grading rating scale, I give it a B+.

            Will I buy this film?

            Since my rating for it is “Worth Seeing in the Theater”, I will not being buying Pitch Black, because “I’ll Probably Buy This” is the rating above “Worth Seeing in the Theater”. The film would have been worth buying if the first act (30-45 minutes) of it would have been better than it was. That was the main thing holding the film back from going up a rating.

Upcoming Movie Reviews

Upcoming reviews for...
To get ready for Riddick,
Pitch Black - tomorrow {and}
The Chronicles of Riddick - Saturday
Then,
Riddick - Sunday

The World's End Video Review

This is my video review of The World's End. The World's End movie review.

That's on my old YouTube channel, however I will soon be posting videos on my new channel JeffreyUtleyMovieReviews.