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A muscular anti hero called Conan, sorry, Riddick goes
head-to-head with a hideous death cult led by Thulsa Doom,
oops sorry again, The Lord Marshall across the ancient Sumerian
plains, oh bugger, the galaxy. Indeed, these two have some
issues that go waaaay back. A sequel to Pitch Black...
Most
'directors' cuts' fall in one of two categories. They expose
or expand on a 'greatness' always there in an already well-regarded
film (e.g. Blade Runner). Or they chuck in gobbits
of extra footage/revamped effects to screw more dosh from
mug punters (hello there, Mr Lucas). A very small number,
however, show how close a crap movie was to being a good one;
that is the case with this extended US edition of The Chronicles
of Riddick.
Don't
get me wrong. This is still no masterpiece. It mostly remains
a hodgepodge of themes, characters and plot points stolen
from Conan The Barbarian, Dune, Macbeth, and that little-read
but increasingly influential tome, S&M Nods and Winks for
Hollywood Auteurs. Much of the dialogue remains clunky.
And many of the performances come straight off a bacon slicer
set to 'fatboy'.
Yet
a film that was half-arsed in cinemas has been transformed
into a satisfyingly kick-ass sci-fi saga on DVD through the
addition of 15 minutes of mythological exposition, character
development and more coherent action. The new scenes turn
the film into a guilty pleasure and do away with the many
'You what?' moments that marred the original cut.
The
commentary - by director David Twohy and actors Alexa Davalos
and Karl Urban - gives a good idea of what happened, even
if it does so largely through hints and allusions. Universal
insisted that TCoR's theatrical release had a PG-13
rating (US equivalent to a 12A) rather than the R (15/18)
that the original Pitch Black carried. So, to begin
with, much of the violence was chopped down, and the kid-friendly
results were often confusing and bland to watch.
However, perhaps even more damaging, much of the explanation
behind the nasty Necromonger cult and Riddick's direct relationship
to its leader was also jettisoned. In these cases, Twohy's
commentary frequently refers to cuts that were made to 'move
things along', for which one is tempted to read instead, 'keep
the ADD generation happy'.
Even
pulp sci-fi - and Robert E. Howard's Conan is the key reference
point here - has to create a world in which its bludgeoning
musclemen make some sense. It now appears that Twohy did this,
only to fritter it away for some box office. Thank God, then,
for DVD. The additions further show that the film originally
had some surprisingly subversive facets all its own. There
is a powerful suspicion of fundamentalist religion running
through the entire tale (with, moreover, Islam pointedly excluded
as the main target of the satire).
Meanwhile,
although Vin Diesel may supply the eponymous beefcake, the
main female characters - notably, Dame Judi Dench's diplomat,
Thandie Newton's Lady Mac and Davalos' sidekick - are far
more powerful players in this melodrama than is the norm.
Finally, the ending resonates more effectively as a kick in
the teeth. Indeed, its twist now both shocks and makes sense.
Pitch
Black found much of its audience on DVD, so while this
$110m follow-up was one of last Summer's more notable flops,
attention has been paid to its presentation on disc. Apart
from restoring the film's dramatic drive, it offers a raft
of behind-the-scenes extras, and both the main feature image
and Dolby 5.1 soundtrack are handsomely presented.
The
irony here, of course, is that the original's DVD release
opened up a neat sci-fi horror flick up to the very teenage
audience for which the sequel was then recrafted/screwed-up.
You could go mad thinking about such stuff - instead, why
not flip your synapses to cruise control and give TCoR
a second (or even a first) chance.
Paul
Dempsey
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$20.99
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$20.99
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