DipitySkillful
an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.
Lidia Draper
Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
Cody
One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
Janis
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Fluke_Skywalker
Plot; Richard B. Riddick and the survivors of Pitch Black are captured by a group of mercenaries who have rather unusual plans for them.Acting as a sort of bridgepoint between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick, this animated short doesn't do any heavy lifting by trying to set up or explain the rather intricate galactic political situation we find in the latter. It instead sets up the circumstances we find Riddick in when that film begins. The bare bones of this story are pretty simple, but it's flavored with some unique spices that help to swallow it all down. Directed by Peter Chung, creator of AEon Flux, it often looks and feels like that 90s MTV series, yet with voices provided by their live-action counterparts, it does very much synch up with the movies.I was hoping there'd be a bit more here. Something that would feel essential to understanding this universe. What I got instead was a reasonably well made, passable short that ultimately only rewards the hard-core Riddick fan.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
In this 35-minute short film, which is a part of the Wheat universe featuring Riddick, our hero goes against a large-breasted evil female character with her very own perception of what is art and how to form it. While he is at it, he also needs to protect Jack again who is voiced by the same actress like in the movie. Riddick, of course, is also voiced by Vin Diesel and he also looks exactly like him. Huge muscle, muscle shirt and the bald head. No doubt, it's Diesel. This piece of filmmaking is now over 10 years old already. I can't give more references to the live action movies as I have not seen them, but I saw that Chillingsworth does not appear in one of them yet and she (plus her scary henchman) would certainly be an interesting addition as main antagonist to Diesel's character. Anyway, this good half hour has everything you'd expect: lots of shooting and fighting, blood and the good side winning in the end with a revenge threat from the bad guys. All in all a mildly entertaining animated short film, but I would only recommend it to big fans of the franchise.
Elswet
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 :.
Shawn Watson
I was a big fan of the bizarro Aeon Flux back in the 90's and director Peter Chung brings that wonderful style to the universe of Riddick (much like he did in The Animatrix).Dark Fury is a small story set between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick (which I haven't seen) in which Riddick, Jack and Abu dock their scout vessel with an ominous and evil ship filled with frozen Mercs and run by a vicious female overlord with a perverted idea of imprisonment.The whole thing is basically an excuse for some quick violence but it's entertaining and expands upon the Riddick universe in interesting ways. I can see why Vin Diesel chose this franchise over TFATF and xXx.The DVD is in non-anamorphic (!) 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound and a bunch of whogivesadamn extras.
