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(3/5) sci-fi, thriller
While I enjoyed Vin Diesel in Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Boiler Room (2000), I became a fan after watching his unexpectedly good performance in xXx (2001).
In 2004 I discovered, Vin Diesel’s cross-media Chronicles of Riddick franchise after playing the terrific Xbox video-game Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher’s Bay (2004) (“Butchers Bay”). The video game serves as a prequel to the movie that is the subject of this review – Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black (2000) (“Pitch Black”). The third work of this series, the movie The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) (“Chronicles of Riddick”), is a sequel to Pitch Black (I haven’t formally reviewed it on The Daleisphere. It is about on par with Pitch Black).
Somewhat confusingly, the sequel movie, Chronicles of Riddick, came out at the same time as the prequel video game, Butcher’s Bay – and both came out four years after Pitch Black. To confuse things further, the developers of Butchers Bay (Starbreeze Studios) are developing a remake of Butcher’s Bay for the Xbox 360 and PS3 with a different name: The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (due out in late 2008 or 2009). Confusion notwithstanding, playing the critically acclaimed video game before watching either of the the not-so-acclaimed Pitch Black or Chronicles of Riddick , made both movies more understandable and enjoyable.
Back to the movie at hand: Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black (2000).
Until today, Pitch Black was the only part of the series I had not experienced. When I discovered that the HD version was available on Apple TV [review coming soon], I chose to download and view it as my inaugural Apple TV rental test. I wasn’t disappointed.
Continue reading “Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black (2000)”
