The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury

I thought Pitch Black was enjoyable enough but was left entirely unimpressed by Chronicles of Riddick so what chance did an animated short have? Not bad actually.

It tells the rather short story of what happened to Riddick, Imam and Jack after they escaped the original movie. Picked up by mercenaries it appears they have gotten out of one mess and straight into another.

Made by Peter Chung I have to say the films biggest weakness is the animation style, it really is quite dreadful. It's half way between a cheaply made Saturday morning cartoon and the excellent Monkey Dust (2003). I just couldn't get past how crappy it looks, in some places more than others.

The story is rushed (As it needed to be considering its length) and rather uninspired but it's construction and competent voice cast save it.

Diesel and David return to add credibility to the whole affair which feels more like a cashgrab than anything else.

Though not blown away with the Riddick franchise, it hasn't entirely been without it's notable moments. Off the top of my head that's three down two to go.

The Good:

Voice cast

The Bad:

Highly average stuff as a whole

Not keen on the animation style

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Mentioning Monkey Dust has got me all nostalgic, damn that was a good show

Way to short but some of the sweetest animation WITH a plot for some time. Great use of the voices to keep the link to the franchise moving with big Vin battling all sorts including what i thought looked like a 'Giant Mecha Penis - with teeth'. Now I'm not one to crimp creative style, IT looked bizarre but it worked! Funny, bloody and slick - not since animatrix has something caught my attention so nicely. Like others before me this should be compulsory viewing before the new feature (i haven't seen it yet) just to get into the Riddick groove of things. This definitely could spawn a few more anime 'chronicles' and i hope it does. Animation like this needs an audience. More please....

Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury: 5/10: At 30 minutes this stand alone short resembles a Saturday morning cartoon rather than a plot bridge between Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick. (And Lord knows if any movie needed a plot bridge it was Chronicles of Riddick.)

The animation is a mixed bag with a lot of the 3d spaceship work leaving a bit to be desired (to shiny for one thing). And while the voice work is authentic, the story is a true one off throwaway. (Hammy and very unlikely villains happen to pop by.) The story may be a throwaway but it does at least give it points for being coherent. (And Lord knows if any movie needed a coherent story it was Chronicles of Riddick) The action scenes are generally well done with a little violence thrown in for good measure.

Certainly one gets the gut feeling that Dark Fury could have been a lot worse. Despite the decent amount of extras the DVD doesn't really work as a stand-alone product. It would however have made a fine second or third disk in the Chronicles of Riddick or even Pitch Black DVD releases.

This is not live action, but rather an Anime edition of the time in between Pitch Black and the Chronicles of Riddick. If you haven't seen it, I won't spoil it for you, but it makes a fine attempt to detail what happened to "Jack" between the time Riddick leaves to the time of Riddick's re-emergence.

I'm not into Anime, personally, so I had to devote some extra concentration to this in order to glean the story from it, but those around me who do enjoy Anime did comment on how well it was done. I can, however, attest to the quality of the story, which was excellent, though I do hope that this does not portent what's coming in the next installment. I hope it's live action.

It rates a 7.8/10 from...

the Fiend :.

Bridging the gap from "Pitch Black" to "The Chronicles of Riddick", "Dark Fury" is an interesting enough exercise in animated story-telling. Vin Diesel, Rhiana Griffith and Keith David return as the survivors of the first installment, this time coming up against baddies of a more human nature, not counting multi-tentacled waving aliens.

This is a good looking animated movie, short but containing some reasonably memorable action set pieces and some unexpectedly bloody violence.

7 out of 10. Riddick fans will find this a treat but this may leave some viewers cold.