Vin Diesel's Riddick character gets a new lease on life in this third film from writer/director David N. Twohy. Katee Sackhoff and Bokeem Woodbine head up a group of assassins out to kill Riddick, who lures them to a desolate planet when confronted with a hostile alien species. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi
Director: David Twohy
Cast: Vin Diesel, Karl Urban, Jordi Mollà, Katee Sackhoff, Bokeem Woodbine.
Release Date: Sep 06, 2013
Rated R for some Sexual Content/Nudity, Language and Strong Violence
Runtime: 1 hr. 58 min.
Genres: Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Review:
After The Chronicles of Riddick I was fine if we never saw Riddick again, that’s how bad that sprawling mess of a movie was. Sometimes certain characters deserve to be left alone in their singular film, Pitch Black, so they aren’t degraded by lesser sequels. Riddick is closer akin to Pitch Black in scope and setting but it’s lacking any of that film’s strengths. Instead we have a laborious slog of a movie that never goes anyway and definitely doesn’t bring anything new to the story. Riddick “borrows” the main plot from Pitch Black and throws in a bit of Aliens for good measure. This sound’s like it should make for a fun film but it doesn’t. It’s doesn’t, in fact the 3 acts can be described like so; Act 1: Riddick gets a dog, Act 2: The Mercenaries, Act 3: It rains. Sadly, I think I’ve ruined the movie because outside of those basic descriptions not much else happens. There’s lots of monotone “cool” dialogue from Diesel and stilted dialogue from characters that wouldn’t even qualify as one dimensional. This all might be forgivable if the film was quick and delivered a solid punch during the action sequences. It doesn’t instead were subjected to more bad dialogue that sounds like it was written by 13 year olds. The film clocks in at nearly 2 hours for some reason and feels more like 4 hours. The tone is so incredibly serious you get the feeling that Twohy and Diesel thought they’d just created the next sci-fi masterpiece. Thankfully I think they came to their senses because they end the film so abruptly. Perhaps they took pity on the audience and decided to put us out of our misery, hopefully they do the same with the Riddick character.
D-
Honestly I cannot remember anything about the other two Riddick movies, except that I watched them several years ago. Anyway, I will just skip this movie unless it comes on TV in a few years, as always, good review Daniel.
ReplyDelete-James
Best you stay far away from this one James, it's just plain bad.
DeleteNice review Dan. Such a dumb movie, but honestly, would you expect anything different from a Riddick movie?!?!?
ReplyDeleteThank Dan, I don't mind dumb but do it expect it to be fun and that seemed to be in short supply throughout.
Deleteit's so easy to spoil the movie because there's not much to it! this franchise needs to end.
ReplyDeleteHonestly shouldn't have ever been a franchise, the character would have faired better as a stand alone creation in Pitch Black.
DeleteI have seen the second movie, but not the first one.
ReplyDeleteLooks like another unnecessary sequel. Hope the box office returns will ensure the end of this franchise.
B2B.
First one was the only one I liked, I personally think Diesel and Twohy are the only 2 who think the character should keep going on.
DeleteI've never been a Riddick fan but I assumed that I was maybe missing something if it warranted a third instalment.
ReplyDeleteSounds awful but the fact that the tone is so serious almost makes it seem worse!
I will be skipping this one!
K :-)
Never seen any Riddick film, mainly because I'm not a fan of Vin Diesel. I may watch all three parts one day when I have nothing else to do ;)
ReplyDeleteYou'd be good with watching Pitch Black and just stopping there, they get worse and worse with each sequel.
DeleteA D-! LOL I honestly can't say that I'm surprised. I've got no interest in seeing this one, so thank you for doing our dirty work. I was tweeting about Vin Diesel the other day, and I said something that I think is really true, which is, after The Pacifier Vin is just holding on by a thread. Every film that guy does is a sequel. He literally is making a career off of F&F sequels and Riddick. He's got nothing to contribute. I think his 5 minutes of fame passed along with they hype of XXX.
ReplyDeleteDiesel is the kind of actor that's better in small doses. I've never thought he was strong enough to carry a whole movie, much less a franchise. I agree with you, he's just raking in the cash on easy targets....
Delete