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The Chronicles of Riddick
Metascore
38 out of 100

Generally unfavorable - based on 34 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 34
  3. Negative: 11 out of 34
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  1. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: Devin Gordon
    70
    Twohy knows how to shoot tense, bare-knuckle action, and his towering, gunmetal gray world is a fun sandbox to play in for two hours.
  2. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    67
    The pleasure of The Chronicles of Riddick comes mostly from the fascinating and outlandishly detailed production design, which sprawls across the screen in nearly every shot, with the Necromonger’s gigantic starships looking similar to those strange stone heads on Easter Island.
  3. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    63
    Too often, it simply makes no sense.
  4. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Pete Vonder Haar
    60
    Isn't going to win over the art house crowd, but you could do a lot worse for summer entertainment.
  5. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    50
    Chronicles doesn't pause for much character development, and is in such a hurry that even the fight scenes are abbreviated chop-chop sessions.
  6. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Mark Caro
    50
    Despite being positioned as a mold-breaker, Riddick now blends in with a sizable crowd of reluctant loner cinematic heroes, just as the movie fails to convince that it's going where no movie has gone before.
  7. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    50
    Chronicles of Riddick is half cheesy, brawny adventure and half … something else. That something else involves a lot of leather, bondage, studded armor and heavy machinery.
  8. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    50
    Like everything in this humorless new genre, "Chronicles" comes with its own snap-together mythology.
  9. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Aaron Hillis
    50
    With his latest, the sci-fi–action–adventure The Chronicles of Riddick, Vin Diesel has established himself as the new face of morally ambiguous anti-heroes.
  10. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Stephen Cole
    50
    The script is terrible - a confounding mish-mash of action-thriller chases, sci-fi travelogue and phony political intrigue.
  11. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    50
    At two hours, The Chronicles of Riddick is way too long for ridiculous.
  12. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    50
    Where "Pitch Black" relied on shadowy threats and sharply drawn relationships between a small group of stranded victims-to-be, Twohy's bloated space opera is an eye-popping three-ring circus of fabulously freaky costumes, over-ripe declaiming and computer-generated spectacle.
  13. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    50
    This is a movie so devoted to metal that it couldn't care less about the flesh it destroys.
  14. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: M. E. Russell
    50
    Amazing-looking sequel to cult fave "Pitch Black"; unfortunately, the film's wrecked by a surprisingly weak, goofy script.
  15. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    50
    Thoroughly enjoyable, but not because it's any good.
  16. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Luke Y. Thompson
    50
    It's fun stuff, but nowhere near as cool as it should be.
  17. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    50
    Threatens to become a serious movie, but they're quickly overwhelmed by another indecipherable rampage or outsize visual effect.
  18. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Staff (Not credited)
    50
    The story is mechanical, but Twohy paces it well enough to showcase the spectacular costumes (by Ellen Mirojnick and Michael Dennison) and production design (by Holger Gross).
  19. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Michael Rechtshaffen
    40
    Unfortunately, Twohy has tried to turn the Riddick enterprise into a sprawling, Tolkien-powered epic, jamming the screen with too many historical parallels and a confusion of new characters.
  20. Empire
    Reviewed by: Ian Nathan
    40
    It's no "Battlefield Earth," but it's no "Dune" either. And, no, before you ask, it's not destined to be a cult classic.
  21. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    40
    As bloated and ponderous as its predecessor was lean and focused, Chronicles ups the stakes along with the budget while jettisoning just about everything that made "Pitch Black" stand out from other thrillers about weary humans battling nefarious space beasties.
  22. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Benjamin Strong
    40
    Riddick is a preening outer-space costume drama staged as a backdrop for its leading man's muscles.
  23. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    40
    The action is so frenetic that the ominous mood isn't allowed to penetrate, and this time the human factor is all but erased.
  24. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    38
    An overblown hodgepodge of volcano-baked desertscapes, Egyptoid-gone-baroque architecture, and gladiator-geared storm troopers with goofy headpieces, The Chronicles of Riddick bears no resemblance to the movie that spawned its namesake.
  25. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    38
    Has a riddick-ulous sci-fi plot, overblown and numbing video game-style special effects and a going-through-the-motions lead performance by Vin Diesel.
  26. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    38
    Like so many sequels, The Chronicles of Riddick demonstrates Hollywood's law of diminishing returns: Its quality is inversely proportional to its budget.
  27. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Robert Abele
    30
    Notable actors such as Thandie Newton, Judi Dench, Keith David and Colm Feore are little more than stiff-necked toy figures jostled around to accommodate Twohy's Wagnerian spacescapes, crappy dialogue and CGI-dependent action.
  28. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    30
    Not since John Travolta sprouted a head of dreadlocks and strapped on platform boots for "Battlefield Earth" has cinematic science fiction been such good-bad fun as in The Chronicles of Riddick.
  29. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    30
    The muddy, convoluted story revolves around the star's cool-guy poses and one-liners.
  30. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    25
    The special effects are extra special. The screenplay is idiotic, though, and Diesel speaks his dialogue like a Sylvester Stallone clone who never finished third grade.
  31. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Connie Ogle
    25
    There's nothing here you haven't seen before, especially if you own a PlayStation.
  32. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Megan Lehmann
    25
    Riddick-ulous.
  33. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    25
    Just about everything in The Chronicles of Riddick is impenetrable, from the convoluted story to the dark and baroque art direction. It's an inane film rendered sometimes laughable by an atmosphere of dead-serious reverence.
  34. Variety
    Reviewed by: David Rooney
    20
    May not quite gain entry to the hallowed pantheon of interstellar cheese of a "Battlefield Earth," but it's not far behind.
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.3 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 148 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 50 out of 79
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 79
  3. Negative: 19 out of 79
  1. xXRenTyrellXx
    10
    Though the Riddick films are so under appreciated (it's a crime) I speak for real si-fi fans when I say that the Riddick series (video games included) is one of the greatest series of its genre.… Full Review »
  2. EonfgeD
    4
    The only thing that saves the movie from getting a lower score, is Riddick.
  3. CooterPatooter
    0
    David Twohy took his solid Pitch Black film and spun it off into... complete and utter crap. With horrendous dialogue and tiny sets that look like they were built by elementary school kids for a school play, you're inclined to think that this is supposed to be a comedic parody of the first film. But no... the film presents the material with the same seriousness as a production of Hamlet or GlenGarry Glen Ross. Whatever. After slogging your way through one awful "action" set piece after another, the final battle turns out to be a joke where the universe-conquering, death-defying bad guy turns out to be a pathetic wet noodle who crumbles under Riddick's unstoppable awesomeness. Yawn.… Full Review »
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