Riddick review

RIDDICK:

EXPLODING WITH GUT-WRENCHING VIOLENCE, MENACING CREATURES, AND SPECIAL EFFECTS!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Vin Diesel battling an alien monster in Riddick

            Vin Diesel (The Fast and the Furious franchise, xXx) is back in action as escaped convict, Richard B. Riddick in the third installment of the Riddick franchise, simply titled Riddick, and while the film’s title is as basic as it can get, the movie itself is definitely an improvement over the last Riddick sequel from 2004, The Chronicles of Riddick. Unlike The Chronicles of Riddick, Riddick 3 reverts back to the Pitch Black style, with R-rated gruesome violence, very frightening monsters, and some impressive special effects.

            Accompanying Diesel in the new Riddick flick are Karl Urban (The Lord of the Rings 2 and 3, Star Trek 1 and 2, RED) reprising his role from The Chronicles of Riddick, Vaako, Jordi Molla (Knight and Day, The Alamo, Elizabeth: The Golden Age), Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica, Halloween: Resurrection, White Noise 2: The Light), Matt Nable as Boss Johns, and an entire cast of alien monsters.

            Some time after the events of The Chronicles of Riddick, we find Richard B. Riddick (Diesel) left for dead on a sun-scorched planet that seems to be lifeless. And once again, Riddick is being pursued by a group of bounty hunters who want to catch him, dead or alive.

            Suddenly Riddick finds himself fighting for survival against alien predators that are more lethal and dangerous than any human being. The only way he can survive is to activate an emergency beacon to alert a group of mercenaries who rapidly descend to the planet in search for Riddick.

            The Merc ship that arrives carries a new breed of Mercenary soldiers who are more lethal and violent than any other mercenary, captained by a man with a personal pursuit of Riddick. With time running out and an intense storm coming over the horizon, Riddick’s hunters won’t leave the planet without his head in a box.

            The new Riddick movie is definitely an improvement over The Chronicles of Riddick and it’s definitely up there with its predecessor, Pitch Black. It’s loaded with extreme violence, thrilling action, badass aliens, and awesome special effects.

            Riddick, for the most part is very entertaining, but it does have a couple of problems, one is the plot is very simple and basic, I would have liked to see the plot being explored a little better, with more backstories on how Riddick ended up on the planet or the story behind the alien creatures, those are the two things I think would make the film a little stronger. Also, the movie lacked in character development, a lot of the characters are pretty forgettable, except for Riddick, Johns, Johns’ religious son, and a very badass Mercenary girl, everyone else is just sort of there to be attacked by the monsters, but that’s been an issue with Pitch Black, so I can cut it a little bit of slack.

            If you’re a fan of the previous Riddick movies, you’ll feel right at home with the new movie, more Vin Diesel action and gore for you. But if you’re a newcomer who is very curious about the movie, don’t come here and rent Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick before you see this.

Oh, and PS, if you do see this movie, I hope you’re not “Afraid of the Dark!”