Riddick (2013)

"Survival Is His Revenge"



PLOT

Left for dead on a sun scorched planet, Riddick finds himself up against an alien race of predators, Activating an emergency beacon alerts two ships : one carrying a new breed of mercenary , the other captained by a man from Riddick's past.


MY THOUGHTS

I am a fan of the 2000 sci fi horror thriller Pitch Black where we are first introduced to the anti hero character of Riddick (Vin Diesel) I really liked how the character was developed and the way he was the one audiences connected with the most threw out the movie even though you really shouldn't, after the success of the first film and Vin Diesel action star rise that followed thanks to the Fast and Furious films that followed we got a sequel to Pitch Black titled The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), which at first glance looks good but when watching realizes that this movie is nothing like the original movie and is completely different in its approach.

The Chronicles of Riddick isn't a terrible film its just not a Pitch Black film and after its release most fans like myself didn't really enjoy it as much, almost an decade later another sequel was made simply titled Riddick but unlike the first sequel Riddick fits more line with the original film.

Riddick begins with Riddick(Diesel) stranded on another Pitch Black planet but all of its predators do not wait until its dark to attack, as Riddick fends off some dog like creatures we get a flashback to how he became stranded on this planet. during the Flashback Karl Urban reprises his role from the previous movie.

Riddick wants off the planet and sets out to find a way out, after some time he finds an outpost where he turns on a emergency beacon hoping to attract anybody with a ship there so he can leave, he gets what he wants as a mercenary team led by Santana (Jordi Molla) shows up and his team is dead set on capturing and killing Riddick and taking back his head in a box.

Before this can happen another team shows up and confronts Santana and his crew, but they aren't there to stop them from what they want to do just simply wait for Santana to ask for their help because they know what type of man Riddick is.

Riddick does what Riddick is very good at which is playing mind games with the two groups which further turns the two against each other, but like true Pitch Black form when other threats show up, more dangerous then Riddick himself, everyone must put aside their differences if they want to survive and get off the planet.

I really enjoyed this movie over the previous movie since it took things back to its roots from the original film but at the same time furthering Riddick's journey along,  Riddick himself even makes references to this in voice over which was a nice touch.

Some of the new characters that we meet in this film are very good, the stand outs being Boss Johns (Matt Nable) He is the man from Riddick's Past who wants answers as to what happened during the events Pitch Black namely what happened to his son Johns (Cole Hauser), Dahl (Katee Sackhoff) she is the no nonsense second in command to Boss Johns, Her and Santana has a few fights that Santana probably would like to take back. Diaz (Dave Bautista) he's Santana's right hand.

The action in this movie is more fast paced and looks very good, my only problem with this film is that after the beginning we never really get to see to much of the creatures that show up, even though they are set up perfectly, we don't know exactly how dangerous these things are like the ones from Pitch Black were.

Riddick does bring the franchise back on course with this entry and I wouldn't mind seeing another film made that follows in line with the original and this entry.

All in All if you are a fan of Pitch Black and even Chronicles of Riddick you should like this movie. Its the what the second film should've been more like in my opinion, The special effects are good, acting is good for these type of movies and what we do see of the creatures are good as well.


MY RATING

6/10

CAST

Vin Diesel- Riddick
Jordi Molla- Santana
Matt Nable- Boss Johns
Katee Sackhoff- Dahl
Dave Bautista- Diaz
Bokeem Woodbine- Moss
Raoul Trujillo- Lockspur
Conrad Pa- Vargas
Nolan Gerard Funk-Luna
Karl Urban- Vaako
Keri Hilson- Santana's Prisoner