Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury DVD

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it's not a comic book, but to me anime is pretty much a comic book put into motion. It's in the same ballpark so I thought I'd write about it here anyways (besides, most of the people I know who read comics also watch anime).

I've seen both Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick, so I'm versed in the world of Riddick, but even for anyone not familiar with the character, this short 35 minute anime feature could still be enjoyable. I found the story to be interesting, the animation to be superb, and the voicing to be wonderful.

The story picks up a little while after Pitch Black ended. Riddick's ship has been captured by a gigantic merc ship. After being captured, Riddick is attacked by mercs and captured. The battle scene is pretty well choreographed with some visceral action. The middle part of this story is somewhat bland as Riddick is simply talked to by the lead merc. There is then a very interesting battle between Riddick and a couple of alien baddies. Then there's some hallway running followed by the final showdown between Riddick and the head merc's right hand man.

Well, on second thought, maybe the story wasn't all that good, but damn if it didn't have some wonderful action scenes. The animation was fluid and eye-catching, packing quite the visual punch. This isn't your average Saturday morning caliber animation, this is they type of animation you'd see in a full length, big budget anime film.

The voices were actually done by the cast members. Vin Diesel reprises his role as Riddick, doing a wonderful job growling and simply sounding bad-ass. It gave this little feature the feel of the two movies and helped make it feel like it really did tie into the universe created by the movies.

The only drawback is that the feature is only a little over a half hour long. It's good, but that isn't a whole lot of content. It's easily worth a rental, though!

Ratings:
Animation: 4.5
Story: 2.5
Overall: 4