Yesterday, I went to the screener of “Pitch Black 2: The Chronicles of Riddick” with Steffi and it was a quite a disappointment. Here's the summary from imdb:
Riddick, now a hunted man, finds himself in the middle of two opposing forces in a major crusade. Feore will play Lord Marshal, a warrior priest who is the leader of a sect [Necromongers] that is waging the 10th and perhaps final crusade 500 years in the future.
Although I have never seen the prequel, I am sure it was unnecessary. Within thirty seconds into the movie, the entire plot was revealed by the narrator. As well, I would say about 80% of the trailors scenes are taken from the first 15 minutes of the movie and after that, everything goes downhill. The plot was very shallow and the dialog quite mundane. There was no real sense of suspense or mystery as Riddick was never in any real danger. And even while tied up and held as a prisoner, Riddick still remained the overly confident and cocky sonofabiatch fighter. To make things worse, his thoughts of his plan during those “tough” moments were conveyed to the audience and spoken like a true ten year old as if just to reassure the audience he was safe. Did I mention Riddick speaks in a monotonic fashion? Efforts to deepen the plot with poorly developed conspiracies and a love story (at least I think they were in love) prove to be in vain. If anything, it seems like the side plots were merely an after thought and just somehow integrated into the movie. The movie did not score any better in the action department. All fight scenes were merely a distorted close up of Riddick flailing his arms and legs with much camera motion. It wasn't even really camera motion, more like the camera man went into some epileptic seizure! More often than not, the audience is left dizzy from the fight scenes. So in the end, there is a showdown between Riddick and Lord whats his face, the leader of the Necromongers, and naturally Riddick wins. Under the Necromonger's philosophy of “take what you kill”, Riddick becomes the leader of the Necromonger and the movie ends, clearly leaving room for another sequel as to what Riddick will do with his new found power. But with already two strikes (first movie had horrible ratings), the third movie seems slated for the same fate.
The good point(s) of the movie was that the digital creation of the Necromongers' vast fleet showcasing their power was very well done. But in that sense, it made the movie quite unbalanced. Seems like too much money was spent on this area and to make up for it, other areas had to be sacrificed. I also like the whole idea of the battle of the faiths instead of the common theme of battle between the races. The sole goal of the Necromongers is to unify all the faiths in the universe taking one planet at a time. Convert, and you may see “thee Underverse“ in the afterlife. Denounce their faith and you shall die a painful death. Actually, this sounds a little familiar...
Anyways, on a scale of 5:
-2.
Save your time and DO NOT watch the movie. I rather watch donkeys mate.
The screener was sponsored by THE BEAR and they had an interesting announcement. Today at noon, they will be starting a bon fire (I forget the exact location) to cleanse the city of all Calgary Flames fan material. Shirts, jerseys, caps, you name it - throw it into the fire and there will be free food for you. Seeing that the NHL games are over, I'd throw Calgary into the flames...turn it into a breeding ground for donkeys...