While Riddick in no way compelled me to go out and buy a ticket when it was playing in the theaters, now that the DVD has come, I decided it was worth a couple of hours to sit down and watch it. I’ve already seen the first two installments of this series, so there’s really no point in trying to pretend that I’m going to avoid this one. And while Riddick certainly brings what you would expect from the series (crazy monsters, action and Vin Diesel being Vin Diesel) it ultimately runs out of steam and becomes… wait for it… Riddick-ulous (yes, I went there).
The story is pretty simple. Riddick is busy ruling his army of Necro-whatevers, the one he grabbed up in the second flick. But he’s getting pissed about playing politics. So he continues his search for his homeworld, the long-lost Furya. When one of his top military guys claims to know where it is, Riddick gladly hands over his throne to go on an adventure of homecoming. But, naturally, the entire thing is a farce. He’s being lured away so his enemies can assassinate him. And, naturally, he beats their asses. But that leaves him stranded on a hostile world with big, nasty scorpion monsters.
Eventually he happens upon an outpost. With big bugs hibernating everywhere and threatening to wake up as soon as the “on the distant horizon” storm shows up, he has no choice but to press the panic button and let people know he’s there. Unfortunately, there’s a big-ass bounty on his head, so in come the mercenaries.
After killing some guys, he is forced to give up so that they can avoid bug-waking hour. The mercenaries aren’t too concerned with the bugs. Until they show up, that is. Then it turns into a man vs. bug free-for-all with Riddick leading the charge.
For the first two-thirds of this movie, I found myself entertained. Once it reached that 40 minutes left mark, however, it all just kind of fell apart. The action gets goofier and goofier, what little life the 2-dimensional characters have in them begins to fade and what started as a tense and well-paced action/survival flick turns into
Did I have fun? Yeah, for the most part. But I still think it’s a shame that they continue to flub what is an obviously well thought-out world. Pitch Black was a wonderful piece of generic action/horror but this one and Chronicles of Riddick were both pretty mediocre. Of course, Vin Diesel says he plans on continuing the Riddick tales indefinitely, putting his own money behind the production. So maybe, just maybe, they’ll get better. Right? Please?
Rotten Tomatoes ranks this one at a blah 58/56%, which is probably about where I would place it. If you could rate a movie in pieces instead of as a whole, it would be a different story.
Photo Credits -
Riddick courtesy of dailygrindhouse.com
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