It’s been about 13 years since the world was first introduced to the bad arse character of Richard B. Riddick in the 2000 sci-fi/action/horror film PITCH BLACK and it has been 9 years since we last saw him on the big screen in the 2004 sequel THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK. Since that one didn’t do that well at the box office, some have wondered whether star Vin Diesel and writer/director David Twothy will ever bring him back again for another film. Well, Riddick fans your prayers have been answered: while it may have taken longer than expected, the next film in the series has finally arrived, which is simply titled RIDDICK. So now you’re probably wondering, was this 3rd film was worth the 9 year-long wait? Well, read on and find out!
Set 5 years after the events of THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, Richard B. Riddick (Vin Diesel) is betrayed by the Necromongers and is left for dead on an unknown planet somewhere in the galaxy. However things go from bad to worse for him, as he starts to be hunted by some deadly alien creatures. While trying to get away from them, he soon discovers an abandoned mercenary station that has an emergency beacon that still works. Knowing that there are people out there who want him dead, Riddick activates the beacon in hopes that someone would come along eventually so that he can steal their ship. Not too long after, two ships land at the station: one containing a rag-tag group of bounty hunters lead by the despicable Santana (Jordi Molla) and the other a highly advanced trained group of mercenaries, whose leader Boss Johns (Matt Nable) has his own personal score to settle with Riddick.
I must admit that I think you’re enjoyment of this film will come down to how much you are a fan of both this series and the character of Riddick. Personally, I don’t really have that much investment to the series myself. I thought that PITCH BLACK was pretty good but I found THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK to be rather mediocre. So I didn’t really have any expectations for this 3rd instalment. Now having seen it, I will say that it is a decent and enjoyable sequel. What I like about this film is that it goes back to the small MA15+ rated (or R rated in the U.S.) roots of the film than the big budget epic scope of the 2nd film. I can tell you right now that this film definitely relishes in milking its rating with everything its got. There’s a lot of violence, gore (there was one death scene that actually made my audience erupt into applause), swearing and even nudity as well. However the best thing I can say about this film is Vin Diesel, he completely owns it once again by delivering another bad arse turn as “Riddick”. You can tell that Diesel does have an absolute love for this character and that he really enjoys playing him, plus it helps that writer/director David Twothy shares that love for him as well and he knows how to make him into an interesting and bad arse character that audiences can root for.
Also the supporting cast was solid as well. All their performances weren’t great by means but by sci-fi/action B movie standards they were serviceable. Although Katee Stackoff (of BATTLESTAR GALACTACA fame) definitely stood out the most with her performance as tough-as-nails Dahl, she was definitely my favourite character of the bunch. Also Jodi Molla chewed the scenery as the slimy, sexist and over-the-top bounty hunter leader “Santana”, he is very unlikable but I do give Molla credit for not shying away from the horrible aspects of his character (he was definitely channelling Peter Stormare when it came to this role. But I must admit that the sexist stuff was a little too much as times). Twothy does a solid job on both the writing and directing front, his script for this one is fine for this type of film but I do think that he could have done more with it though (the dialogue isn’t very good, but it’s tolerable). However he does a much better in the directing department, he was able to make this small budgeted film look much bigger than it does. Also the CGI is they used in this film was pretty solid all round, while CGI alien creatures aren’t great but luckily where still decent enough that they weren’t distractingly bad (I have to give credit for Twothy for making us care about a alien dog-looking creature that Riddick befriends during the film).
However in terms of negatives, one of the big problems I had with this film was it too long . At nearly 2 hours, the film feels long-in-the-tooth and it doesn’t help that its rather slow-paced as well, especially in the 1st half. If it was trimmed by 10-15 minutes, it would have been a tighter and better paced film. Another thing that bothered me is that while Twothy does make look bigger than it does but at the same time you can definitely tell that the budget for this film was really small when compared to the other films in the series (especially PITCH BLACK) since 80% of it is set entirely in one location, it makes the film feel very small and stagey once we get to the mercenary station (I think most of the budget went towards the CGI, which is understandable). Also the some members of the cast aren’t really given much to do (Bokeem Woodbine is a bit underused and Karl Urban’s role is basically a 2 minute cameo) and the action set pieces, while decently done, are not really all that exciting or memorable.
So overall while RIDDICK isn’t a good film by any means but for what it is, it’s still a decent enough sci-fi/action film. It’s not going to bring any new fans to series or character (especially if you indifferent to it like I am) but if you are already fan, than you are definitely going to have a lot of fun with this one for sure.
My rating:
Review by Bede Jermyn
The Super Network 