Pitch Black introduced us to the dangerous escaped convict by the name of Richard B. Riddick. The survivors of a prisoner transport ship were stranded on a planet becoming prey to the local flesh-eating alien inhabitants. This gave Vin Diesel, now the poster boy for The Fast & The Furious, xXx and The Chronicles of Riddick, a chance to make right.

Riddick is more of a sequel to Pitch Black than of The Chronicles of Riddick. David Twohy has dialed the Riddick universe back a few notches, returning to old school action, tough guy bravado, unfriendly locals and interplanetary bounty hunting. Riddick digs its feet in the dirt to tell a survivor story, in which ruthless mercenaries and a man from Riddick’s past are drawn to him like moths to a flame. The sci-fi actioner embodies elements from films like: Predator, Tremors, The Thing and Assault on Precinct 13.

Vin Diesel can act, but his muscular physique, deep voice and shaven head make him the go-to guy when it comes to playing dangerous, most wanted type characters. He doesn’t have the martial arts know-how of Jason Statham, but he delivers just as much attitude and star appeal. Diesel sandwiches the story’s first and third act, giving us a chance to meet the new arrivals in the second act only to return to central focus later in the story.

Riddick’s emergency signal alerts competing factions to his whereabouts after being left for dead. The teams assemble at the desolate station in order to fetch a generous bounty, one that would pay double for his corpse. In a funny turn of events, the mercenaries underestimate Riddick’s Home Alone resourcefulness as they fall prey to a number of traps and decoys, echoing films like Predator.

The alien inhabitants add another layer of danger to the adventure as Riddick first has to earn his stripes and then use the creatures against his enemies. This scenario creates an unpredictable and hostile Tremors setting, where everyone is susceptible to attacks. Riddick may not have the claustrophobia or alien possession of The Thing, but it’s a 10 Little Indians guessing game as to who’s going to die next.

“Go on… I dare you, call me Riddick-ulous again.”

The motley crew of hired guns become ensnared in a search for the fugitive, whose frank bartering for safe passage become a more and more attractive prospect as the hunt continues and bodies pile up. At one point, the film seems destined to become an Assault on Precinct 13 style lockdown as Riddick plays his trump card.

David Twohy knows how to create a world for Riddick, using CGI to build rough terrains, cool futuristic weaponry, hover bikes and alien wildlife. The visuals add scale to the adventure and an otherness to the environment. We’re entranced by this golden, rocky and sun-scorched wasteland. While considerable effort went into realising a pack of dingo dogs to create a companion and ally for Riddick, the canine substitute just feels off, veering towards After Earth rather than Life of Pi for realism and effect.

Riddick downscales the grandeur of visual effects of The Chronicles of Riddick in favour of ’80s tough guy action. Jordi Mollà is as funny as he is slippery as Santana, the tenacious yet ineffectual leader of the mercenaries. His performance is entertaining and somewhat cheesy as the bad guy who’s got it coming. Matt Nable counterbalances him as a smarter, more grounded and complex soldier and leader.

Mollà is supported by wrestler-turned-actor Dave Bautista as Diaz, a skull-cracking hard man. Nable is supported by Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff as a right hand woman. While Bokeem Woodbine and Karl Urban add more weight to the production in smaller supporting roles.

Riddick is all about action man bravado, so there are plenty of one-liners doing the rounds. The storytelling keeps the ground shifting as Riddick goes from survivor to custodian, as the bounty hunters become the hunted and the high stakes game of cat-and-mouse gets bloody. Twohy keeps the story taut with explosives, traps, heroics and wit. Unfortunately, as another critic pointed out, the story has misogynistic tendencies in its treatment of women, most specifically Dahl.

All in all, the film does run about fifteen minutes too long, but the survival action adventure story keeps reinventing itself with a fun tone and one climax building upon another. The CGI does create another world, but could have been handled better. The two crews provide comic relief and slasher style entertainment. While Vin Diesel shows why he’s the man, using no-tech stealth tactics and primitive force to take on his enemies.

The bottom line: Entertaining

Release date: 25 October, 2013
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