Ever since the days of Pitch Black I've been a fan of Vin Diesel. I even watched the Fast and the Furious movies because my fellow compatriot Chucky B. convinced me that I wouldn't regret it (and I didn't). However, I will never watch The Pacifier, unless I'm paid to do it or someone gets me good and drunk first.
Anyway, one of more iconic sci-fi/action characters of the 21st century is Riddick And today I'm gonna talk about the latest flick of his called, well, Riddick. One of the things I've never really been able to roll with is the choices of movie titles in this particular series. But titles don't always make the picture (I refer back to the Fast and Furious series for example), so I let it slide in this case. So let's dive in and I'll let you know what I thought.
We continue the heartwarming tale of Richard B. Riddick with him already on the same planet from Pitch Black, mostly buried under a mound of dirt and rock. He's battered and bloody, and right away is on the run from some of the indigenous wildlife in the area. Once he finds a safe place to hold up, we get a little back story into the events that occur between Chronicles of Riddick and the present time. Once that's done some unimportant stuff happens that I won't bother to bring up. Well ok, one thing that happens is he adopts and raises a dog-like animal as a pet. No, really.
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| Is that a Walmart I see in the distance? I must make it there! |
And then time passes. After some extensive travelling, Riddick comes across an abandoned mercenary station. After finding some food and hanging around for a little while he notices a storm slowly coming his way, which is huge trouble as one of the species of wildlife comes out of the ground by the thousands to soak up the rainfall. Sensing his time on the planet should soon come to a close, Riddick pushes an emergency beacon in the station, announcing his presence on the planet. Before long, two ships arrive, one after the other. One ship carries a team of bounty hunters, the other a team of mercenaries. Both teams want Riddick, and Riddick wants one of their ships so he can leave before the storm hits. From here on in, it's a rather simple premise: two teams of people hunting Riddick, and Riddick making fools of them. Until the storm reaches them that is......
Let's get into what I liked. While I didn't particularly like many of the characters, the ones I did like were fun to watch, and some of their lines were just damn hilarious. Vin Diesel is just as Riddick-y as you expect, and I was happy with that. For those of you looking to catch some Katee Sackhoff boobage, just a warning: you get a very quick side-boob shot, and that's it. So keep your eyes peeled and enjoy it while it lasts, haha.
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| Gah, your breath is the worst thing I've experienced on this planet yet!! |
The CGI was meh. Some decent shots here and there, but there were some bad times. Riddick's dog seems to move too fluidly at times for example, and there was a scene with these hover-bikes that were so obviously green-screened it was groan-worthy. But I wasn't expecting much there anyway. There was also pretty decent action throughout. Some shaky-cam as you might expect, but not enough that it was overbearing and annoying, which was nice. Oh, and a minor fight-based spoiler, there is a Vin Diesel vs. Dave Bautista go-time late into the movie, but it's way too short to please anybody, which was disappointing.
One thing that sort of disappointed me was that the part where the lights go out and the creatures come out to play didn't happen until pretty late in the movie. I was expecting it to not take up quite as much time as the whole daytime bounty hunting thing, but I was surprised by how little time was actually given. It would have been nice to see everyone fight a little bit more against something they all have to band together for, but it wasn't meant to be I suppose.
If you're any sort of fan of Vin Diesel, or of the character Riddick, you should go see this flick. It doesn't aspire to be anything other than down and dirty Riddick action, so if you go in with the correct mind frame, you should enjoy it for what it is. And besides, apparently Vin Diesel leveraged his own home to help finance this flick, so at least watch it in theater to make sure he doesn't become homeless, lol.
Movie Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Sci-Fi/Action Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.
-Ken Bucklesworth
@KenBucklesworth, @BoonsBuckles
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