Vin Diesel’s Wildest Sci-Fi Movie Is Now Available In Glorious 4K
The Fast and the Furyan.
Did you know Riddick — Vin Diesel’s most recognizable character other than Dom Toretto — has the first name Richard? That’s not the type of detail The Chronicles of Riddick lingers on, as the 2004 sci-fantasy sequel is too busy widening the scope of the lean, mean original Pitch Black. The film draws Dick Riddick, a dangerous criminal gifted with night vision, into a galactic conflict against a death-worshiping empire, a tall order for a killer who only looks out for himself.
As the 2013 threequel Riddick is more of a retread of Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick stands out as the series’ only blockbuster swing. And with Arrow Video having just reissued its 4K edition of the film, it’s time to reevaluate the rare sci-fi film that pulled off its grand world-building experiment.
How was The Chronicles of Riddick received upon release?
The Chronicles of Riddick is the only Riddick film (all of which were directed by David Twohy) to get a budget over $100 million, and also the only one to not earn double its budget at the worldwide box office. Critics were not kind, and while Pitch Black didn’t exactly win any Oscars, it was better received as a stylized breakout role for Diesel with less CGI spectacle and self-serious plotting. The Los Angeles Times and Variety both compared the film to Battlefield Earth, John Travolta’s L. Ron Hubbard adaptation that had spectacularly flopped only three years prior.
Why is The Chronicles of Riddick important to see now?
Twohy’s early pleas to scale up the adventures of Pitch Black’s antihero were ignored until Universal executives saw how lucrative genre franchises in the 2000s could be. “I pitched an ambitious treatment for a sequel two years ago and they passed [...] It was only after Lord of the Rings and the new Star Wars that the possibilities here grabbed us,” Twohy said in 2002 as the gears were turning on the part-Dune, part-Dungeons and Dragons (producer and star Diesel is a D&D nerd) expansion of Riddick’s hostile universe.
Twohy and Diesel weren’t the only ones with expansion on their minds; Chronicles introduces us to the Necromonger Empire, an army of religious fanatics who worship the alternate dimension Underverse, accessed by crossing “the Threshold” of death. Their legions of soldiers, and the thousands they convert as they conquer the stars, are basically half-dead, invulnerable to most pain and devoted to the crusade of their Lord Marshal (Colm Feore). The Necromongers inevitably remind you of Dune’s pallid, dark-armored Harkonnens, but by this point, Dune hadn’t received an uncompromised, acclaimed screen adaptation, so Twohy borrowing from Frank Herbert’s mythos felt acceptable.
The Chronicles of Riddick’s design is undeniably Dune-y.
What does Ricky Riddick have to do with this? Nothing, and he’d like to keep it that way. But Riddick’s visit to Pitch Black survivor Abu al-Walid (Keith David), whom he suspects tipped off the bounty hunters pursuing him, is timed with the Necromonger invasion of Abu’s planet. (The Chronicles of Riddick is the rare sci-fi film to feature Islam, with Abu living in the “Chrislam” city of New Mecca.) Lord Marshal is terrified of Riddick because he’s from the planet Furya, and a Furyan is prophesied to kill him, setting up a battle for the soul of the galaxy full of lush Herbertian production design.
It’s a shame that Chronicles features an extended sequence on a dangerous prison moon with a gang of gruff, disposable survivors, as that most resembles what we see in the other two Riddick movies. (Incidentally, Twohy was one of 10 writers attached to Alien 3, and his draft introduced the film’s prison planet setting.) Thankfully, the rest of Chronicles is a gloriously loopy, earnest swing at sci-fi gravitas: Karl Urban and Thandiwe Newton play a Necromonger commander and his hissing wife as Lord and Lady Macbeth in Space, no fewer than three characters receive poignant, sacrificial death scenes, and Dame Judi Dench has a supporting role as a supernatural Air Elemental, repeatedly appearing to doll out cryptic wisdom.
It’s a credit to the flexibility of the space opera genre that these gestures towards Shakespearean pathos don’t feel too out of place with fight scenes edited like music videos, exaggerated spaceship and extraterrestrial sets, and stock action one-liners that Diesel gleefully growls throughout the film (the best of which concludes the Director’s Cut). Blending high and low artistic impulses was the best decision the Riddick franchise has ever made. Ambition is one thing, but responding to a Hollywood studio’s desire to engineer a hit sci-fi franchise with something this uniquely grungy and delicious makes The Chronicles of Riddick an even rarer beast.
Nothing good happens when the Necromongers come to town.
What new features does The Chronicles of Riddick 4K Blu-ray have?
Arrow Video previously released The Chronicles of Riddick as a limited edition Blu-ray in 2024, so if you missed out then, now’s your chance. Included are director-approved 4K restorations of both the theatrical cut and the longer, superior Director’s Cut. This release contains all the special features of the limited edition, including the 2024 making-of documentary Ambition on Another Scale featuring David Twohy and actors Keith David and Linus Roache, as well as separate interviews with Twohy and storyboard artist Brian Murray. Arrow also never skimps on the illustrations, and this Blu-ray comes with gorgeous artwork by Dan Mumford, as well as a collector’s booklet with writing by critic Walter Chaw and a breakdown of the film’s impressive lore.
