You're not afraid of the dark, are you?
The Lowdown: After nearly a decade, Riddick graces the silver screen once again in Riddick, the long-awaited third film in the Riddick franchise. While a solid sci-fi thriller, Riddick is a bit of a mixed bag. A simpler story and a greater emphasis on atmosphere and tension make Riddicksuperior to The Chronicles of Riddick, but character development is weaker than in Pitch Black. Action-wise, Riddick is satisfying as all hell. If anything, Riddickis proof that this franchise is still going strong.1. The Plot: After the events of the last film, Riddick (Vin Diesel) is betrayed and left for dead on a barren planet infested with deadly creatures, which forces him to bring out the animal within him once more. Plot-wise, this almost nullifies everything that happened in The Chronicles of Riddick, but whatever. Time passes and Riddick has befriended and trained a wild dog-hyena hybrid animal that is both adorable and ferocious at the same time. Their only goal is survival.
Easier said than done.
The two companions eventually come across a deserted space station with an emergency beacon. Riddick activates the beacon, which triggers two groups of bounty hunters to land on the planet. What ensues is a battle of wits between Riddick and the bounty hunters; Riddick wants a ship to get off the planet, and the bounty hunters want Riddick’s head. However, something dangerous on the planet is approaching fast, and if all groups can’t settle their differences, they may not get off the planet.2. The Characters: The characters in Riddick are definitely the weakest element of the whole film. They don’t drag the film down too much because in the greater scheme of things, they aren’t the primary focus of the audience; the action is. Let’s begin with Riddick himself, who is played by Vin Diesel (The Fast and the Furious saga) again. By now, we’ve come to know his character inside and out. He’s not terribly complicated and has a propensity for posing in badass ways and delivering badass-sounding one-liners. However, in Pitch Black, Riddick was more strongly developed. Riddick is somewhat of a two-faced character. He is a hardened, takes-no-bullshit criminal who trusts his wits, strength, and animal instincts, but throughout the course of the film, he seems to regain his humanity when he uses his better judgment to do the right thing. In The Chronicles of Riddick, these traits were muted and Riddick became something of a typical action hero who fights and spouts one-liners. In Riddick, the writers flesh out Riddick a lot more, making him much more interesting and likable. The human qualities that Riddick lacked in the second film are brought back and showcased mostly in the scenes featuring Riddick and his new pet. His intelligence comes back into play when he is engaging in an extended battle of wits with the two groups of bounty hunters. These changes are small and simple, but so effective. Oddly however, there isn’t a heavy emphasis on Riddick’s photosensitive eyes anymore.
The two groups of bounty hunters are much less interesting simply because they are all stock characters. One group is led by Santana (Jordi Mollà), a twisted little creep who wants nothing more than to put Riddick’s head in a box and collect the bounty. Boss Johns (Matt Nable) is the leader of the second group, and is a much more organized, efficient, and capable leader than Santana. However, he turns out to be the father of William Johns, the slimy bounty hunter transporting Riddick in Pitch Black, and Papa Johns wants answers as to what happened to his son. Other bounty hunters include Dahl (a badass Katee Sackhoff), the only female, and Diaz (a beefy Dave Bautista). There are others, but many of them end up as dead weight, if you know what I mean. Sadly, these characters are largely one-dimensional and not nearly as interesting as Riddick. Had they been, this film would have been just as good as Pitch Black.
3. The Aesthetics: David Twohy, the director of all three films, definitely knows how to make a visually-appealing film. Like in Pitch Black, Riddick is dumped on a seemingly barren planet. There are plenty of sprawling, patchy grasslands, as well as craggy rock formations and dark, dank caves. The sun seems to beat down heavily on this planet, bathing each of these locations in a yellow-orange hue. In the third act of the film, night falls and we get to see the contrast between intense darkness and flashes of light and color that made Pitch Black so visually-stunning. However, unlike in Pitch Black, Riddick doesn’t conceal things in the darkness to increase the tension, but rather to make action scenes look cooler. The action is fast and furious (pun totally intended) and we are always able to make out what is going on, which drains much of the tension.4. 360o: (WARNING: SOME SPOILERS) The Chronicles of Riddick made a full 180oturn when it went from small-scale sci-fi to a full-blown sci-fi epic. It ended up biting off more than it could chew, and the film lacked so much of what made Pitch Black a success. The filmmakers wisely chose to scale things down when making Riddick. Probably the highlight of Riddick is actually the first third of the film, which focuses solely on Riddick himself. After being betrayed and left for dead on this planet, he is forced to go on full-survival mode, scavenging for water, food, and shelter. Much of this part of the film is wordless, except for a few lines of narration, unlike in The Chronicles of Riddick, which featured tons of exposition and tons of action. Of course, the scavenging is broken up by the occasional action sequences involving Riddick and any of the numerous deadly creatures on this planet, but it is otherwise excellent character development. Most everything is shown and not told, and it is so much more effective than an exposition dump. Probably the most effective character development is when Riddick finds and trains a dog-hyena hybrid animal to be his loyal companion. The animal possesses dog-like mannerisms that are sure to make many viewers go “awwwwww”, and the fact that Riddick saves it from certain death makes viewers sympathetic towards him. Really, it is the small details such as this that are enough to elevate any story, and these small nuances, plus the fact that there isn’t constant action going on, make the first act of the film the most unique part.
He's adorable, isn't he?
The second act features a dangerous game of cat and mouse between Riddick and the two groups of bounty hunters. This serves to bolster Riddick’s character even further by demonstrating how cunning he is; the first part of the film (and the previous two films) already demonstrated how physically capable he is. In theory, his plan is brilliant. Make the bounty hunters distrust each other and ultimately have them wipe each other out, and then steal one of their ships and escape. However, it also makes you feel a bit less sympathetic towards him. Of course, Riddick can’t be an all-around good guy; that’s not his character. He is morally ambiguous, and his unpredictability is one of his strongest assets. The third act is the action-packed climax, which is satisfying on a visual level. However, I can’t help but feel that the third act feels too reminiscent of Pitch Black. Again, there are deadly alien creatures that hide in the darkness and our characters must fight through swarms of them in order to get from point A to point B so they can escape. How very original. However, as I mentioned in the previous section, the slow-burning tension in Pitch Black is gone and replaced with fast, frenetic action. The action is visceral and entertaining though, and I have to mention that Riddick features one of the best and most awesome kills I’ve seen in a film. However, there was more tension in the first two acts of the film, when the action was played out in a slower, more deliberate pace. I suppose the filmmakers probably felt that a dose of intense action was needed, and that some members of the audience would be expecting it. While it is probably the weakest of the three acts, all the parts as a whole add up to a solid film.
That moment when one flash of lightning illuminates your greatest nightmare.
The Bottom Line: Riddick is a satisfying way to mark the end of the 2013 summer blockbusters. It is also a much better film than The Chronicles of Riddick. Scaling the film down and making it more simple and concise improved the story, pacing, and character development (for Riddick). Since the film is called “Riddick”, it makes sense that Riddick should be given the appropriate depth and complexity that his character needs to remain interesting. When characters are uninteresting or unlikable, it is difficult to get into the story. Riddick actually spent a third of the film exploring and developing Riddick, which was both different from what we came to expect from this franchise, and necessary since The Chronicles of Riddick removed much of what made him an interesting character. However, the rest of the film doesn’t tread much new ground, and the climax is another CGI-enhanced action spectacle. Overall, Riddick is a solid, entertaining film that will definitely please Riddick fans. Let’s just hope that the franchise continues in this direction.Riddick is property of Universal Pictures, One Race Productions, Radar Pictures, and Riddick Canada Productions. This review was written by me.
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