(Note: This review is of the theatrical version, I have seen the uncut version and it is an improvement, but have not reviewed that edition)
In this latest incarnation, Riddick goes boldly goes where no previous entry has gone before: Nowhere.
Say what you will about the previous film (Chronicles of Riddick) at least it had the guts to take some risks. Sure, almost all of those ended up being complete misfires, but they were still taken. Riddick on the other hand plays it safe. It’s a path not entirely without benefit, but one that was not expected from the series spawned by Australian cult-classic Pitch Black.
Shoot me for saying it but I’m actually a huge fan of Davind Twohy (The Arrival, Waterworld, G.I. Jane, A Perfect Getaway) so I actually sort of hoped for more from the piece. Sure Chronicles was silly and disjointed, sure Dark Fury was totally unnecessary and Dark Athena/Butcher Bay were only intermittently decent, but overall the Riddick franchise will always be compared to Pitch Black, and against this prodigy, the latest movie is simply subpar.
The Necromonger storyline has been all but dropped, any connections to previous characters (sans Riddick) are completely unbelievable and the events are a shameless rip off of the first film. Seeing a more “survivalist” and intelligent Riddick is nice, as it’s always been sort of more insinuated than outright shown. The entire world that the events of the film take place on is even moderately interesting, and none of the actors or characters are outright let downs, but overall Riddick falls much closer to the “barely watchable” category than the “brilliant” one.
It’s “cool”, it’s pretty and it’s most certainly entertaining, but it’s not new, it’s not clever, and it’s most certainly not as good as Pitch Black.
66%
-Gimly