The Chronicles Of Riddick - Great fun, but probably always destined to fail

The Chronicles of Riddick was probably always going to be a hard sell. It's a sequel that was spawned off the back of a blatant B-movie which - somehow - exceeded all expectations and became a sleeper classic, ie. Pitch Black.

Chronicles of Riddick is set five years after space convict Riddick escaped the last prison transport (and a planet full of monsters) and has now found himself not only hunted by mercenaries but also charged with the task of bringing down an empire of intergalactic nasties.

Personally, I quite enjoyed it. It has great action, some witty dialogue from Riddick himself and decent (if a little too CGI) special effects.

However, it's worth noting that it didn't perform as well as it was predicted at the Box Office. I'm guessing that was because it doesn't really seem to know what sort of film it wants to be. Its predecessor, Pitch Black, was an out and our sci-fi horror. Chronicles waters down the fear factor in exchange for a lower rating (in order to draw more younger viewers in) which annoyed its core fanbase. Plus there's only ever really Riddick to root for. He works alone and this is proved by the fact that he barely ever meets up with `a gang' so to speak of. He just goes from planet to planet, briefly interacting with one set of locals after another. Then you have the baddies. Yes, the costumes and sets are great, but they're pretty clichéd and one dimensional. Ooh, a Bristish bad guy - there's a shock.

All in all, Riddick is fun, but the bottom line is that it's little more than a remake of the eighties (so-bad-it's-good) classic Flash Gordon, only with better special effects.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that