Cinema Reviews

Riddick Review

• 30th Aug 2013

Returning Riddick to the main screen has taken it’s time for sure, but director David Twohy has promised a return to the roots of Pitch Black. And that’s what we get. Robert Riddick is quickly dropped from his place in the universe (or was that underverse?) onto another hot, barren wasteland and has to learn once again to fend for himself.

For at least the first half an hour we find Riddick settling into his new home; a planet with very little vegetation, and quite  few hostiles beasties. The voice over tells us that he thinks he got a little bit too civilised – so it’s a back to basics approach for the character – or at least we get what appears to be a nature documentary, hosted by your pal Riddick, and his jolly canine companion (Yes Riddick is given a pet to play with).

And all seems well until he happens upon an abandoned station where he alerts a bunch of mercenaries to his presence and not one, but two groups of heavily armed men pop down to the planet to try to claim a bounty on him.

Anyone who has seen the trailer will have large portions of the second half of the film spoilt (It seems any film that stars Vin Diesel this year can’t be marketed without a trailer campaign that gives the film away). But there is still plenty of R rated fun to be had along the way.

Jori Molla heads up one crew and ramps his performance right up to a comical level. The second crew includes Katie Sackhoff’s character who it seems was put there to offend as many women on our planet with regard to her character arc and the insinuations it makes. Despite playing another tough girl image, she seems to sit out most of the action the film delivers leaving he character fairly pointless.

What is surprising is how simple the plot mechanics are. There are very few twists or turns along the way, and yet the film at almost 2 hours manages to outstay its welcome a little. The film may be returning to the franchise roots, but perhaps that idea is a little outdated as well. Maybe the issue wasn’t that it strayed from a working formula, but that with the second film it merely went overboard into a territory it really didn’t belong in.

Steven Hurst