PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*
DARK FURY is a cartoon featurette of slightly more than half an hour, prepared as a DVD extra for the live-action CHRONICLES theatrical feature. PITCH BLACK's director David Twohy provided the basic story.
The narrative takes place almost immediately after the wanted murderer Riddick (Vin Diesel) escapes the desert planet with two other survivors, the female adolescent Jack (Rihanna Griffith) and the Imam (Keith David). They're seeking to be picked up by the authorities, though Jack and the Imam have agreed to conceal Riddick's identity in repayment for his having saved their lives. Instead, a strange ship full of battle-ready mercs brings the refugee vessel aboard with a tractor-beam. Riddick kills several of the mercs until one henchman forces him to surrender by threatening Jack's life.
On the surface the ship appears to be simply capturing wanted men, storing them in cryostasis with the intention of collecting bounties on the criminals. But when Riddick and his companions encounter the master of the ship, Antonia Chillingsworth, they learn that she has a weird artistic fixation regarding death. She's freezing the wanted men into icy sculptures, with no intention of turning them in. Somehow, Antonia knows who Riddick really is, and she gives him the chance to fight some creatures in an arena, to show off his deadly skills before she makes him into a permanent artwork.
FURY is by-the-numbers action, with no real characterization of either old or new characters. Famed animation director Peter Chung works in some of his customary visual tropes, but none of the designs stand out. The cartoon's sole appeal lies in Diesel's sober readings of his standard tough-guy lines.
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