Les chroniques de Riddick: Dark Fury

This animation is about Riddick and the gang boarding a spacecraft to fight a lady with a hobby to collect the most wanted criminals around the universe.

It's amazing how much plot and action they have packed in in just 30 minutes. The pace is fast, and there is always something to keep the adrenaline pumping.The action sequences are cool and very realistic. If it was to be transformed into a real film with actors, making a carbon copy would not look out of place. Usually for animation spin-offs they don't get the start to voice it, but in here I am impressed and glad that they got Vin Diesel to voice Riddick.

Even though I forgot the plots of the two Riddick films, I still enjoyed "The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury" as a stand-along animation.

I thought Pitch Black was enjoyable enough but was left entirely unimpressed by Chronicles of Riddick so what chance did an animated short have? Not bad actually.

It tells the rather short story of what happened to Riddick, Imam and Jack after they escaped the original movie. Picked up by mercenaries it appears they have gotten out of one mess and straight into another.

Made by Peter Chung I have to say the films biggest weakness is the animation style, it really is quite dreadful. It's half way between a cheaply made Saturday morning cartoon and the excellent Monkey Dust (2003). I just couldn't get past how crappy it looks, in some places more than others.

The story is rushed (As it needed to be considering its length) and rather uninspired but it's construction and competent voice cast save it.

Diesel and David return to add credibility to the whole affair which feels more like a cashgrab than anything else.

Though not blown away with the Riddick franchise, it hasn't entirely been without it's notable moments. Off the top of my head that's three down two to go.

The Good:

Voice cast

The Bad:

Highly average stuff as a whole

Not keen on the animation style

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Mentioning Monkey Dust has got me all nostalgic, damn that was a good show

Bridging the gap from "Pitch Black" to "The Chronicles of Riddick", "Dark Fury" is an interesting enough exercise in animated story-telling. Vin Diesel, Rhiana Griffith and Keith David return as the survivors of the first installment, this time coming up against baddies of a more human nature, not counting multi-tentacled waving aliens.

This is a good looking animated movie, short but containing some reasonably memorable action set pieces and some unexpectedly bloody violence.

7 out of 10. Riddick fans will find this a treat but this may leave some viewers cold.

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 :.

Dark Fury picks up right where Pitch Black ended, with Riddick, Jack and Imam being captured by mercenaries, the leader of whom has some strange and sadistic intentions in regards to Riddick. In a bit of a baffling business move, Universal decided to release this after The Chronicles of Riddick. If they had released it a week or two earlier, some of the questions posed in Riddick that confused a good number of people would have been clearly answered. This short gives us the answer of some key events that occurred in the five years between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick, as well as some insight into why Riddick, Jack and Imam interact the way they do in CoR. It also introduces the character Toombs, who plays a key role in Riddick's plight.

Aside from its value as an answer provider, Dark Fury is also a highly entertaining piece of animation. The graphics are top notch, the storyline is interesting, and the action is very well done. The plot moves along at a quick pace and it is a lot of fun to watch Riddick kick some @$$ in animated form. I highly recommend seeing this before watching The Chronicles of Riddick, not only is it a good movie but it also explains some key elements of the story.