Review

Riddick, who just can't seem to win a trick, is betrayed by the Necromongers and is left for dead on a hostile planet. Battling all manner of beasties, reptilian buzzards, space hyenas, toxic pool eels, and finally a sort of water scorpion thing, our Boy slowly regains his strength and heads for what passes for greener pastures on the plant. At least it doesn't appear to be the mouth of a dormant volcano. Time passes and Riddick adapts to his new home along with learning how to get on with his new pet, a space hyena. A passing storm causes the hyena, who I don't think was ever named, to get all upset and if you're thinking Pitch Black scenario then join the club.

Finding an abandoned mercenary base Riddick decides to phone home, well okay he activates an emergency beacon, and before too long a Merc ship arrives with a crew out to gain the bounty on Riddick's head. Double if he's delivered dead apparently, which works for the Captain of the crew. Naturally Riddick isn't going to be taken easily and starts a guerrilla war against the interlopers. Surprising our original crew a second ship lands, the crew of this ship are also after Riddick but they want him alive. Something from Riddick's past is about to catch up with him and it might well cause his demise! Just when you think it can't get any worse Riddick offers a truce to the two Captains, they leave with one ship and he'll take the other one. Time is ticking down with a massive rain storm on the horizon and things are about to explode into monster mayhem. Naturally Riddick is once again betrayed, but he has the upper hand having nabbed a couple of required power cells from the two ships.

In 2000 Pitch Black introduced us to the character of Richard B. Riddick, a role that made the early career of Vin Diesel prior to those Fast & Furious movies appealing to teen and Bogan males. Pitch Black was at its heart a monster movie featuring an engaging character who was forced to show his humanity as things descended into hell. In 2004 The Chronicles of Riddick completely derailed a burgeoning franchise as the monster aspect was jettisoned and a strange SciFi/Fantasy hybrid saw punters abandoned Riddick in confusion, sweet Prince we barely knew you. After poor box office results Universal canned the series and turned their attention to making the usual cookie cutter stuff audiences lap up like dogs eating their own vomit. Now there's a mental picture friends and neighbours. Finally Van Diesel, on the back of some solid results, wrestled control of Riddick back and as much as I hate to say it, returned to the origins of the series in a reboot simply entitled Riddick. The title is indicative of the movie, the overly elaborated plot lines and sets of Chronicles has been jettisoned; it's back to basics, Riddick fighting for survival in a harsh alien environment.

Riddick is a classic three act Hollywood movie that is trying to win back fans and maybe expand a bit. As such things are kept pretty simple. The first act focuses on Riddick alone, Vin Diesel here ably carrying the movie without needing anything like a support cast beyond some nasty critters and a pet space hyena. We learn how he came to be abandoned, in what looks to be a volcanic crater of huge dimensions, and we then sit back for the ride as Riddick takes on the local fauna. Not for the faint hearted kids, and at least one scene will have some members in the audience squirming. The act finishes with Riddick escaping his immediate danger and travelling through what passes for the Garden of Eden on this planet. Improbably the pet hyena gives Riddick food for thought and he phones home as the second act introduces us to the two separate Merc outfits. We then shift our focus to these outfits with Riddick being a barely seen danger. For mine this was the best sequence in the flick, there's a feeling of tension and danger throughout and we get a quick glimpse of Katee Sackhoff's boobs. The block ends with Riddick's capture as Merc Jones shows he has most bases covered. We then hit the final act and the expected creature mayhem, well worth the wait, while the movie sort of follows Pitch Black's play book there's enough difference to avoid the audience feeling bored. Added bonus for those of us keeping score is the nasties have venom and aren't afraid to use it. Very solid construction and the pacing builds during the three acts to a satisfying climax.

I'm back on board the Riddick groove train, when's the fourth movie due?

Throughout Riddick Director Twohy goes with this almost washed out sepia look, which I would imagine is his attempt to show how alien the environment is. While I was at stages wondering about the tints being used, it's never explained as to why the local environment is this colour, it didn't distract me from the adrenaline fuelled testosterone outing I was watching on the screen. There's almost always motion in every scene, a requirement of action movies and by movie makers wanting to avoid being labelled as French.

The creature effects are excellent, with a wide variant of local critters being thrown at the screen. Everything does appear alien though clearly with enough earth analogy to be sort of recognisable, so no we're not talking totally alien but creatures we can readily believe in. The CGI is meshed in with the live action seamlessly, so full marks on this aspect of the movie. I was also impressed by the local "moon", that was a nice touch.

Okay there's the odd issue with the plot that may hamper full enjoyment but for what it's worth I was able to get beyond the quibbles. How does Riddick know something is going to come out of dormancy with the arrival of the rain? Okay I can believe his pet might have an instinctive understanding that rain isn't good locally but how does Riddick translate this to "time to get out of Dodge"? Equally the Merc leader who wanted Riddick alive for personal reasons, a bit too accepting of Riddick's explanations for mine. There are other minor issues with the plot, but certainly none of the gapping plot holes that make you face palm while watching major Boredwood releases.

One of the aspects of the movie I was slightly confused with was Riddick's almost psychic ability to predict the future, maybe this explains his decision to hit the emergency beacon? Are the Writers trying to set up the character with preternatural abilities for some future plot development? While it was kind of cool a couple of things are left drifting for a future movie. I sort of got this Conan in Outer Space meets The Mentalist vibe, which is sort of a weird melding.

Gorehounds should be reasonably pleased with what's on offer during the course of the movie. Riddick doesn't wallow in the blood but there's gore here and there that will have fans of that aspect salivating. Besides a disembowelment we get a head sliced off in a sort of Underworld fashion and a lot of death and mayhem as the cast is culled to the bare essentials. Unfortunately the characters you do expect to die don't make it the final credits while the few you have pegged to have redeeming features are no doubt back in the next movie in the franchise.

I got a free ticket to this one so have to say I got my money's worth, though to be honest I would have happily paid the $17.50 price tag that Aussie cinemas deem fair to catch their offerings. Yeah right, I can purchase a new release DVD for that price or grab six or so new release rentals from my local emporium. On the bright side the cinema wasn't packed with obnos checking their fracking mobile phones every five minutes, which surprisingly is a breath of fresh air. Why do I go to the cinema again? I was entertained by Riddick, the two hour running time seemed to zoom past, and got exactly what I was expecting. Our main character keeps showing his humanity while battling the odds which is kind of uplifting in an action packed rampage fashion. I'm recommending this one, though you may need to have caught the previously movies to understand some aspects of Riddick. Yeah I took a shine to the movie, there's nothing however to really fear in the dark.