 Tagline: Survival Is His Revenge Unrated Director's Cut Vin Diesel reprises his role as the antihero Riddick in the latest chapter of the groundbreaking saga. A dangerous, escaped convict wanted by every bounty hunter in the known galaxy, Riddick has been left for dead on a sun-scorched planet that appears to be lifeless. Soon, however, he finds himself fighting for survival against alien predators more lethal than any human he's encountered. The only way off is for him to activate an emergency beacon and alert mercenaries who rapidly descend to the planet in search of their bounty. With time running out and a deadly storm on the horizon that no one could survive, his hunters won't leave the planet without Riddick's head as their trophy. Also starring Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica), Karl Urban (Star Trek Into Darkness) and Dave Bautista (WWE). Experience the Riddick: Unrated Directors Cut with an alternate ending! Storyline: The infamous Riddick has been left for dead on a sun-scorched planet that appears to be lifeless. Soon, however, he finds himself fighting for survival against alien predators more lethal than any human he's encountered. The only way off is for Riddick to activate an emergency beacon and alert mercenaries who rapidly descend to the planet in search of their bounty. The first ship to arrive carries a new breed of merc, more lethal and violent, while the second is captained by a man whose pursuit of Riddick is more personal. With time running out and a storm on the horizon that no one could survive, his hunters won't leave the planet without Riddick's head as their trophy. Written by Universal Pictures Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Kenneth Brown on January 3, 2014 -- After Earth. Production budget: $130 million. R.I.P.D.: $135 million. White House Down: $150 million. Jack the Giant Slayer: $195 million. Oz the Great and Powerful: $215 million. The Lone Ranger: a reckless $230 million, and that's a conservative estimate. Some of the year's biggest budgets, some of the year's biggest domestic flops. But Riddick? Writer/director David Twohy and producer/series star Vin Diesel's hard-fought, blood-sweat-n-tears threequel? A lean, thrifty $38 million. Shot on a relative dime, and earning a solid $98 million worldwide, the duo's long-in-development passion project does far more with far less than its blockbuster brethren, and looks better doing it; ditto when comparing Riddick to its franchise predecessor, The Chronicles of Riddick, which was a bit of a bloated, over-indulgent exercise in spending too much on too little. Riddick not only represents a welcome return to bloody, R-rated Pitch Black form, it effectively resurrects the near-dead, fan-favorite series and finds it still bristling with potential. All Twohy and Diesel have to figure out going forward is how to give their legion of sequel-hungry fans the one thing Riddick doesn't offer: something new. Shedding the fat of Chronicles' Baroquian space opera, Riddick strands Diesel's titular antihero -- initially the Lord Marshall of the Necromonger horde -- on a farflung planet his subordinate and rival, Commander Vaako (Karl Urban), claims to be Furya, Riddick's homeworld. The desolate world isn't Furya, of course, a little tidbit Riddick ascertains seconds before being betrayed and left for dead. Surviving the harsh elements and the local wildlife, the universe's most notorious convict eventually finds an abandoned mercenary outpost, triggers an emergency beacon and waits patiently for a merc crew eager to score a hefty payday. Two ships arrive, one after the other; the first manned by the sort of outer rim hack-hunters-for-hire Riddick eats for breakfast (led by Jordi Mollà's cocksure Santana and bolstered by Dave Batista's hulking Diaz), the second comprised of battle-hardened pros better suited to the task at hand (led by Matthew Nable's steady-handed Boss and backed by Katee Sackhoff's hot-headed Dahl). Before you can say "go for the sweet spot," Riddick is stalking the shadows, merc by merc, working to steal a ship capable of taking him off world. Riddick's first act is a silent, all too efficient killer; a stripped down scrapper hellbent on refining the series formula and embracing its primal urges. There's growly genre dialogue -- and a puppy, if you can believe it -- but it's the movie Chronicles critics wanted nine years ago and the actioner Twohy and Diesel have been promising. (Not to mention a bloody, brutal Wall-E if you squint and watch it just right.) When the mercs arrive, though, the film spirals into series homage that occasionally borders on self-parody. Whereas Riddick opens his third actioner on the ropes, fighting to make it through the night, he soon resumes his weirdly omnipresent shenanigans, lurking and smirking in plain view while yet another band of dim-witted mercenaries look everywhere but up. From there it descends into a rehash of Pitch Black, with a sea of alien beasties rising out of the ground and forcing Riddick and his adversaries to work together to survive. (The difference being a solid but predictable subplot involving a merc with ties to someone from the first film.) It reeks of callback and same-iness, with little in the way of mythos or character advancement. Riddick rides off into the sunset in the exact position he was at the end of Pitch Black, minimalizing everything that transpired in Chronicles, Kyra and all. Fortunately, beneath all the familiarity lies a sinewy action spectacle with more nerve and gristle than most. Chalk it up to Diesel's unflinching love of Riddick, Twohy's colorful misfits and derelict alien worlds, the pair's fondness for crowd pleasing action and savage kills, or maybe the series' return to the muck, murk and mud of a decisive R rating... whatever the source of its swagger, Riddick pins its Big Dumb Fun badge to its sleeve with pride. No cut corners. No pulled punches. No dropped balls. Twohy's script may leave something to be desired, but Diesel doesn't falter, his castmates are having a blast, the film's FX delivers, death hits hard and sacrifice hits harder, and there are more than enough memorable moments to go around. Yes, Pitch Black remains the better film. And yes, if you aren't already head over heels for the series, Riddick isn't going to inspire a change of heart. However, franchise fans will be thrilled with Part Three, even while spotting every flaw and misstep it entails. Here's hoping Twohy and Diesel have more in store for their merc-mauling antihero in future installments. Riddick is a fun, functional redux; a tasty appetizer. Bring on the main event. Good news, bad news: Riddick delivers on its back-to-basics promise... yet still leaves something to be desired. It bests Chronicles but never quite surpasses Pitch Black, and fails to do anything new with Riddick or the franchise. Even so, there's a good deal of bloody fun to be had with Twohy and Diesel's third franchise film and enough seed planted to produce an even better actioner come Part Four. Universal's Blu-ray combo pack, meanwhile, is a terrific release, ignoring the fact that its much too short supplemental package lacks the Twohy/Diesel commentary and production documentary I, for one, was itching for. With two cuts of the film, a top tier video presentation and an equally impressive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, Riddick nails its AV landing. At the very least, it's worth a rent. Franchise fans, though, should add it to their Amazon carts post haste. Trivia:
[CSW] -4.4- Riddick: "Betrayed again. Shoulda seen it coming. Especially since the first time it happened was the day I was born." If you are a sucker for any high production value SciFi flick, high quality CGI, and/or like Vin Diesel's previous movies, definitely see this film. This film is more in-line with Pitch Black, which I loved, but with a smaller crew and basically a one planet set. Though the plot is similar and does include references to Pitch Black it still manages to holds its own on its own. The support acting is adequate, with no particular standout performances; and the CGI special effects are outstanding… the creation of Riddick's pet hyena-dog is especially noteworthy. Vin Diesel is spot on with his performance of the character that made him famous. I rented it before a later purchase. [V5.0-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box 10/10. See also: Pitch Black (2004) See also: The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) Cast Notes: Vin Diesel (Riddick), Jordi Mollà (Santana), Matt Nable (Boss Johns), Katee Sackhoff (Dahl), Dave Bautista (Diaz), Bokeem Woodbine (Moss), Raoul Trujillo (Lockspur), Conrad Pla (Vargas), Danny Blanco Hall (Falco), Noah Danby (Nunez), Neil Napier (Rubio), Nolan Gerard Funk (Luna), Karl Urban (Vaako), Andreas Apergis (Krone), Keri Hilson (Santana's Prisoner [as Keri Lynn Hilson]). IMDb Rating (05/27/13): 6.6/10 from 120,731 users IMDb Rating (07/05/12): 6.5/10 from 89,499 users
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
