K-SCORE: 90
Director: David Twohy
Based on characters by: Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat
Starring: Vin Diesel, Katee Sackhoff, Dave Bautista
Spoiler Level: Minor
“Riddick... a survivor... who knows how to do things... with a razor thin line of morality... and makes good on his promises...”
Those who made the film Riddick understood what was good about Pitch Black and Chronicles of and recreated a lot of the sci-fi badassery of those films, with a special revitalization of the dangerous, wild world of the first one. Throughout I could tell I was watching a movie made by people who cared about their characters, setting, and story. Sure this type of content isn’t for everyone, but for those already on-board with the concept of Riddick are going to be treated to a great two hours.
The universe in the Riddick franchise is mostly hinted at, at least so far with the films they’ve made, and even though a lot of time is spent on one barren planet, it somehow gives the sense that it’s a truly massive and interesting galaxy worthy of exploration.
Riddick is awesome - a man who knows how to do things. He has this razor line of morality and anything that doesn’t push past that line is fair game for annihilation by his hands. More than just a fighter though, he’s a survivor, and Vin Diesel did a great job of emphasizing that. He makes very little distinction, really, between figuring out a way to bypass the poisonous scorpion-like creature in the desert canyon and figuring out a way to bypass the mercenaries that stand between him and a way off the derelict setting. He also makes good on his promises like nobody’s business. When he says something like, “When I get free of these shackles, you die in the first ten seconds,” your heart just races with excitement because you know that is one-hundred percent true. And somehow when they show you - yep, he dies within the first ten seconds - you’re still impressed with how Riddick manages to follow through.
The plot is simple. Riddick wants to survive and escape the planet he gets stranded on. It clearly embraces Pitch Black, but it doesn’t ignore everything that happens in The Chronicles of Riddick like some franchises that seem to want to forget weaker entries. It finds the sweet spot the series needed to continue to thrive in the world of sci-fi cinema.
It’s far from a perfect film. There are a couple bad shots, some one-liners that sound dumb instead of cruelly clever, and some inconsistencies with the planet’s wildlife, but mostly it stays the course and is enjoyable to the end.