After unexpected success with sci-fi actioner Pitch Black, director David Twohy and star Vin Diesel quickly signed up for a sequel. Following Richard B Riddick's trigger-happy adventures on the planet Helion Prime, The Chronicles Of Riddick boasts a bigger budget but sadly its "imposing look and enthusiasm can't disguise its dullness". Unlike its low-budget predecessor, this bombed in spectacular style.
Space Cowboys
Apparently in a great rush to dissociate themselves with the film, Twohy and Diesel are nowhere to be seen in this tacky selection of extras. The Virtual Guide offers a breakdown of the places and people encountered in the film using a mishmash of clips with cheesy voiceover by supporting players. "What most people call hell, I call home," laments Alexa Davlos about the planet Crematoria. It brings a tear to the eye, but for all the wrong reasons.
And there's more naff narration in Toombs Chase Log, only this time there isn't even a montage to distract you. Instead you're expected to sit and stare at an animated control panel for a full ten minutes as Nick Chinlund (playing Toombs) prattles on about Mercs and Necromongers. Banal doesn't even begin to describe the dialogue, which includes gems like: "29 days out: Helion Prime - nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there."
What Planet Are You On?
A featurette on visual effects offers the only behind-the-scenes access, but it's cursory at just six-minutes long and occasionally baffling. Effects supervisor Peter Chiang talks briefly about the creation of Crematoria using a blend of miniature models, matte paintings and CGI, but descends into jargon when he tries to explain the techniques used to give Judi Dench that look of ethereal transparency as Aereon. He catches himself doing this and rewords it for the laymen like so: "the computer is able to read, through optical flow the way in which the vectors were moving and that would drive the particle system to render part of the image invisible." Well, it seems so simple when you put it like that...
Riddick's Worlds is billed as "Vin Diesel's guided tour" of eight key sets. Well, perhaps Chiang zapped him with his vector-jigging particle thingy because Mr Diesel isn't actually visible anywhere. Sets including the Basilica, Helion Fountain Square and Planet UV6 stand completely empty. By clicking left and right, you can feast your eyes on a full 360 degrees of emptiness.
In the absence of an audio commentary there's a trivia track, but it's frankly irritating. Boxes of text pop up slap-bang in the middle of the screen to impart such "enlightening and entertaining" facts as, "it took 12 hours to sew the armour on Lord Marshal's costume." Frankly you'll want to stick a needle in your eye after about a minute. Unfortunately that sets the tone for this DVD, which is otherwise mostly just empty space.
EXTRA FEATURES
The Chronicles Of Riddick DVD is out to buy on Monday 3rd January 2005.
