RIDDICK

nice movie

After trying to move the character to more epic levels in ‘Chronicles of Riddick’, and failing to capture an audience, this third installment in the series, simply titled ‘Riddick’, is a return-to-basics for director David Twohy. It quickly sets itself loose from the baggage of ‘Chronicles’ and pursues a more clear-cut survival action story that might as well be titled ‘Pitch Black 2‘.

Maybe you're all scared of the wrong thing.

Unsurprisingly reactions to this, the third outing for Vin Diesel's sci-fi based anti-hero, has been very mixed. In truth it's hardly a great film of the "must see" kind, and it does in fact cleave very close to Pitch Black, the first and most superior of the Riddick trilogy. However, there's a whole bunch of science fiction fun to be had here.

Plot has Riddick left for dead on a inhospitable planet, where he finds himself up against some alien creatures. His only hope of getting off the planet is to bring notice of his whereabouts, which brings two ships to where he is. Both with crews who have differing reasons for wanting to capture the enigmatic convict...

And thus we get a beautifully filmed sci-fier that features beasties of both the human and alien kind. Action and moody histrionics are never far away, and Diesel is wonderfully muscular, macho, course and scary. Some of the CGI is weak, and naturally much of the film's coincidences and contrivances have to be forgiven if one wants a popcorn and beer good time of it. 7/10

(Note: This review is of the theatrical version, I have seen the uncut version and it is an improvement, but have not reviewed that edition)

In this latest incarnation, Riddick goes boldly goes where no previous entry has gone before: Nowhere.

Say what you will about the previous film (Chronicles of Riddick) at least it had the guts to take some risks. Sure, almost all of those ended up being complete misfires, but they were still taken. Riddick on the other hand plays it safe. It’s a path not entirely without benefit, but one that was not expected from the series spawned by Australian cult-classic Pitch Black.

Shoot me for saying it but I’m actually a huge fan of Davind Twohy (The Arrival, Waterworld, G.I. Jane, A Perfect Getaway) so I actually sort of hoped for more from the piece. Sure Chronicles was silly and disjointed, sure Dark Fury was totally unnecessary and Dark Athena/Butcher Bay were only intermittently decent, but overall the Riddick franchise will always be compared to Pitch Black, and against this prodigy, the latest movie is simply subpar.

The Necromonger storyline has been all but dropped, any connections to previous characters (sans Riddick) are completely unbelievable and the events are a shameless rip off of the first film. Seeing a more “survivalist” and intelligent Riddick is nice, as it’s always been sort of more insinuated than outright shown. The entire world that the events of the film take place on is even moderately interesting, and none of the actors or characters are outright let downs, but overall Riddick falls much closer to the “barely watchable” category than the “brilliant” one.

It’s “cool”, it’s pretty and it’s most certainly entertaining, but it’s not new, it’s not clever, and it’s most certainly not as good as Pitch Black.

66%

-Gimly

The third Pitch Black film "Riddick" is much more focused than its predecessor and a welcome return to the formula that worked so well for the original movie. Riddick is a bad-ass survivalist fighting an extinction level event that threatens everybody, with an assembly cast that is colorful and fun to watch.

<em>'Riddick'</em> isn't a movie that I hold much praise for, yet it somehow did end up working for me. I was sensing light boredom for the majority, though it picks up enough by the conclusion that I'd say I'm cool with it. I could easily be rating it a notch lower, mind.

This is probably Vin Diesel's weakeast showing thus far as Riddick, though I still find the main man to be a solid watch; I like him as an actor, so little surprise I guess. Katee Sackhoff's Dahl is actually the one I enjoyed most, even if they annoyingly undermine the character at the end.

The rest of the cast aren't worthy of much note, though Matt Nable is alright and I'm always happy to see Dave Bautista involved in a project; this is, in fact, the fourth (unconnected) film I've watched this year that he has popped up in, more the merrier!

Effects-wise, this mostly felt like a downgrade from the previous flick; despite the nine-year jump. The doglike creature, as cute a sidekick as it made, looks quite lousy. The feeling of being bored stemmed from the pacing, which did initially feel debilitating but it overcomes it.

<em>'Riddick: Furya'</em> is set to be the fourth installment of this series. That could actually be good, on paper it sounds interesting at least. We'll see!