Let me preface this by saying that if you haven’t seen the other Riddick movies then this one won’t make a lick of sense. You’ll probably find yourself wondering why it even exists in the first place. That’s because the most recent installment in the would-be franchise plays out like a disjointed prologue. Almost like a short story stuck at the beginning of something bigger just to set the scene.
Riddick (Vin Diesel) has been stranded on another planet full of savage beasts that he must growl at and kill. The first 30 minutes of the movie are actually quite slow, yet they’re the most enjoyable parts of the movie. Instead of diving head first into the skull-bashing that the Riddick movies are known for, this one trots along as our night-seeing anti-hero finds himself smack-dab in the middle of a CGI nature preserve from hell.
He’s been left on a parched desert planet. A few inconsequential flashbacks only serve to confuse, especially if you aren’t a follower of Riddick and his varied chronicles. The dusty deadly planet is full of all sorts of computer-generated nightmares. Creepy looking pterodactyl birds, sphinxlike hyena-dog hybrids, and worst of all scorpion serpents who live in mud puddles and owe much of their design to Aliens.
Riddick sets about surviving this hostile environment. A few speechless montages later and he’s become its master. But, Riddick doesn’t want to live out his days on such a god forsaken place, so he activates an emergency beacon which sends two teams of bounty hunters straight to his coordinates. Riddick is a wanted man.
Up until the bungling bounty hunters show up, Riddick has a chance to buck the clichés that befall so many sci-fi action movies. One man, alone on a deserted planet, has some promise. Those first 30 minutes you feel like you might be in store for something with some originality. Sadly, the outside forces show up to collect the bounty on Riddick’s head and whatever momentum the movie had suddenly ceases. It’s buried in an endless stream of idiotic one-liners, inept acting, and gruff voice contests where characters growl and sneer at each other until the scene changes. It’s all very repetitive.
The leader of the bounty hunter group is a man named Santana. He’s played by Jordi Molla who does nothing but play unintimidating villains. Remember him in Knight and Day? Yeah, he’s just as terrible here too. There’s also the fact that this movie stars Dave Bautista, who used to be a professional wrestler. A good rule of thumb is unless it’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the starring role, a movie featuring a pro-wrestler isn’t going to be good.
Once Riddick starts fighting it out with new arrivals the end is predetermined. There’s never any sort of surprise or suspense. We know Riddick overcomes all odds all the time. That’s just what he does. He’s a hulk-ier, dumber space-version of Jack Bauer with built in night vision.
Fans of the earlier movies might find this one just as entertaining as they found the others. The problem is that without any foreknowledge the movie makes even less sense. Not that it had much to begin with.
