Chronicles of Riddick review

A 'B' film with 'A' money to throw around' pretty good Syra. Actually your description caused me a nice flashback of Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy, (miss that guy). I prob will go see this little 'curiously sexless' film this weekend, and then I can follow Dark Fury.

Duh, got it backwards. Will wait for Dark Fury first.

I totally dug Riddick. It was like a Barbarian movie in space, and was a major throwback to bizarre "childrens" films from the 80's like Flash Gordon, Krull and Conan The Destroyer. Pulp adventures with a twisted, feteshistic undercurrent.

Dark Fury is pretty good, especially when it really lets go towards the end. Much of the animation and design is surprisingly generic through, considering it came from Peter Chung. But interesting nonetheless.

It'd be hard to top Matriculated though. The elements and themes it explored rendered the feature sequels bland and shallow by comparison. In fact I think matriculated is one of the most imaginative and innovative science fiction pictures ever made.

In Dark Fury he seems a little restricted by existing script and established characters. They should just have given him an outline and let him write the thing himself.

Thanks, PVC. Matriculated and Dark Fury are really at opposite purposes, and aimed at different audiences. Maybe someday I'll post the extensive list of revisions I suggested to the Dark Fury script-- all of which were disallowed, with one exception. The one change I was allowed to make was to change the character of Chillingsworth to a woman (she was originally a man). That didn't have any bearing on the plot or themes, so they gave me that.

All in all, it was a very illuminating experience. I'd often thought I might like to do a pure action film. Now that I've done one, I have no desire to do any more.

I'm happy with the results. And the main thing is that the studio, and Pitch Black fans are happy.

Customer Reviews

(tommy1138: "This is better than his Animatrix short by a longshot." *sigh*)

And I FINALLY get back to talk about Dark Fury... heh. (in my defense, the disc doesn't work on my PC) I've watched it twice now.

I think Peter really was a hired gun on this film. The studio wanted his style, but not necessarily his way of thinking, and sadly that makes it "a Peter Chung film" only on the surface. That, and I'm not happy with any sort of "movie tie-in" plot. However as a demo reel for what Peter can do visually -- character design, camerawork, CGI integration, lighting effects -- it was excellent.

I liked the more anime look Peter and Fil Barlow went for (drawing Toombs in 'Lupin 3' style, ect). While Riddick and Junnar were very 'Fluxian', as they needed to be. The distinctive look of each character -- mainly expendable mercs -- really helped to humanize the film.

I love Chillingsworth! She's so... petulant! If the running time was there, it would've been fun to see her go even more over the top. I actually liked the idea of a human museum -- reminiscent of Jack Kirby's paranoid-Randroid musings during his tenure at Marvel. For some reason, the art of Keith Haring also sprang to mind. A more extensive tour of her menagerie, possibly including non-human subjects (did anyone notice the dragon-lizard-thing on her desk?) would've been nice.

I am a better man for seeing the Shrills! However, the second monster (bio-mechanical thing... the name escapes me) felt weak in comparison. I would've made it a shambling horror; making it fast and tentacle-spewing just made it too much like a Shrill. And I don't like that the 'designated hero' kills it in one hit.

I have one BIG criticism -- aside from the slim plot -- and that has to do with the direction. I don't think Peter Chung is the right choice for a violent action film. He lacks that knock-down drag-out sensibility (after 1st season Flux, anyway). His style is more deliberate, methodical. Calculated. Action requires a kinetic, organic sensibility that's just this side of chaos. Peter Chung's kinetic, organic, but for some reason, rarely feels chaotic.

Also, some of his cuts are frustratingly quick; it would've been nice to *follow through* a few more times, rather than subliminally imply something. Compare with Koji Morimoto's work; after a Morimoto vid, I need a cigarette...

Hope I'm not in the doghouse after my merciless critique... ;)

Peter, where did you get your inspiration for the sigils in the Kublai Khan? Those elaborate designs were my favorite visual. They seemed to match Chillingsworth's style, her iciness and baroque sense of detail. Looking forward to your impressionistic, low violence feature film.

Meanwhile I'm still waiting for my DVD that I ordered back on June5th to come in the mail...

It's good to be viewing, and actually discussing, some new Chung work after all these years. Matriculated just didn't do it for me, but Dark Fury hit a bit closer to the mark from what I have come to expect from Chung's work. Yes, it was very limited in breadth and scope, but what was there was damn good. The action was quick; the villainess, cold, aloof, and sexually dysfunctional; and the atmosphere lonely and emmersive in its austerity, just like a good space thriller should be.
That scene with the Shrill was really beautiful (not to mention more than a little suggestive with the the two gaint balls, flailing tentacles, the excited Chillingsworth, and that final spurt of mysterious bodily fluid after Riddick's coup do grace).

I agree with Syra that pure action isn't Chung's srong suit. He's more contemplative, and you could see him struggling to strike a balance between balls to the walls action and actually infusing the story with some deeper meaning. (I think he achieved that balance). However, I don't quite agree with Syra's reasons. Animation can never really be uncalculated and chaotic because it's such a deliberate, collaborative process. That feeling of spontanaity is just one more facet of the illusion of bringing still images to life.

I do have a question for Chung though. In that final fight scene, the animation and even the character designs seemed to change a little. Was I just seeing things, or did the production process shift a little for that scene?

The ornate designs in Chillingsworth's conservatory were drawn by Ahn Joongryoul, a very talented designer, with whom I've worked frequently.

The disorted drawings of Riddick and Junner during the fight were by Robert Valley. He wanted to draw the characters that way. It looked good to me. Robert also storyboarded about half the film.

I approached my involvement in Dark Fury in much the way I usually approach directing commercials for Rally's hamburgers or Pepsi Cola. The client has certain needs, which I and my crew try to fulfill.

For the most part, I agree with this review (2 pages):

ign.com

I also came across this-- from a site devoted to the actress who plays Jack (3 pages, so far):

obsessed

Wow... obsessed is the word. Savage Midnight certainly savaged it in her blog. Nice to see such in-depth (what you'd probably call geeky) fan analysis though.

It's tough to explain, Logo -- I did mean the illusion of spontaneity, but some directors seem to lavish more attention on it than others. Morimoto and Miyazaki's work live and breathe, while Chung or Kawajiri characters tend to be icy and detached. There's room for both styles.

Matriculated is a piece that's grown with me; I was dazzled, then left cold, then picked up on the emotional/political subtext, raw feelings bubbling under the surface. It depends on the baggage you bring to it... being counterculture leaning probably helped (ah, how I remember the psychedelics debate... ;) I feel that, The Demiurge (story), and A Last Time For Everything are the most emotional work in Chung's repertoire.

Ah, I noticed Valley and other Flux alumnus in the credits -- they're much appreciated!

"If Aeon were standing here, I'd go like this."

Sorry, Peter, but.... hehe.