Riddick | David Twohy | September 6, 2013
Pitch Black came out in 2000 and was quite a pleasant surprise, almost underrated as a whole. It straddled a fine line between sci-fi and horror, the story was simple, it was man vs. aliens. It worked because it executed its plan and played ode to previous sci-fi horror films that came before it, and Vin Diesel worked the role of Riddick quite well. It’s sequel, The Chronicles Of Riddick was a mess of a film trying to hard to be a mega space opera, with too much going on. It failed to capture the simple essence of Pitch Black and became an over bloated mess that I could barely finish.
Riddick is the third entry in the Riddick trilogy (all directed by David Twohy), and it sits comfortably in between the two films, thankfully leaning more closer to Pitch Black than Chronicles. Five years after the events of The Chronicles Of Riddick, he finds himself in a dire situation stuck alone and broken/injured on a desolate planet. We see him adapt to his new surroundings until he is able to find a an empty mercenary station and activates a broadcast that will bring his location to any bounty hunters that are quick enough to realize who he is.
This is where the fun begins. Riddick draws the attention of two different teams of bounty hunters with different motives and objectives. One is purely for the price on Riddick’s head, which is now worth more dead than alive. The others motive is a secret of the film that takes time to come forward.
Slowly but surely we watch as the teams become smaller and smaller as Riddick ironically becomes the hunter. Riddick needed a way to get off of the planet, and now he has two different ships to possibly pick from. But these teams are ready to battle, and won’t go down without a fight. Soon it becomes Riddick vs. The Bounty Hunters and of course, vs. the creatures of the planet. Once night falls, anything goes.
You can already see why the film in garnering comparisons closer to Pitch Black than Chronicles Of Riddick. Vin Diesel leads the film with a more assured presence than the previous films, now that he has become an even larger than life star/producer since their release. He’s joined by an interesting and entertaining cast of characters played by actors such as Matt Nable, Jordi Mollà, Katee Sackhoff, Dave Bautista, Bokeem Woodbine and Nolan Gerard Funk. Just like in Pitch Black they all play there roles, and some of them will go sooner than others, in bloodier fashion than the ones prior. Although Riddick is working with a much smaller budget than Chronicles, it stays true to what the fans wanted, giving them a pretty hard R rating. The violence is all there in its full glory, providing for some great fun.
It’s not a sci-fi classic or does it accomplish the surprising results of Pitch Black, but Riddick is a perfectly fine bit of entertaining that mostly achieves what it set out to do. Vin Diesel has truly embodies the role of Riddick, and I honestly wouldn’t hesitate to go see another sequel if it came out. You could do a lot worse than turning your brain off for a while and enjoying a bit of sci-fi thriller violence.
Join the conversation