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