Riddick is the third installment of this loosely-connected series built around the taciturn tough guy character portrayed by Vin Diesel. The previous two feature films, Pitch Black (2000) and The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) had little in common with each other besides the protagonist and a couple side characters, but this latest release takes the best of what the first two had to offer and combines it into a thrilling, sometimes over-the-top entertainment.
The plot picks up almost directly from the end of The Chronicles of Riddick (spoiler warning for Chronicles): Riddick, having assumed leadership of the empire of the Necromongers after slaying the previous Lord Marshall, finds that he feels the call of his home planet, Furya, of which he is perhaps the last survivor. He attempts to return to Furya, but is betrayed by his Necromonger lackeys and abandoned on a dusty, unknown world.
The first act gives Riddick room to re-re-re-establish himself as the consummate survivor, pitting him against all sorts of deadly fauna. It also hints at his softer side, as he raises a feral tiger-jackal pup into a loving companion. The CGI work on the tiger-jackals is pretty incredible, as are Vin Diesel's interactions with them. It's one thing to watch a beautifully realistic animated creature, but it's quite another to see a human actor alongside it and feel like it's completely natural, like it was filmed that way. That's as much of an achievement for the animators as it is for Vin Diesel's acting abilities, which are too easily overlooked in the face of the character's deadpan delivery and general silence.
Diesel's perfect comfort inhabiting Riddick's skin gives the film a solid foundation from which to explore various genres. It smoothly segues from Castaway-style survivorship to a monster-in-the-night thriller (most reminiscent of Pitch Black) to action scenes that would be right at home in Starship Troopers. Despite these disparate elements, Riddick is never out of his element, and his menacing wisecracking is unsettling enough that it never loses its charm.
The supporting players, though, are just as strong. Every actor lends a humanity and humor to his or her part that elevates them above being the simple mooks that are so common as underlings. The jokes and asides from the bit players ground the movie as one about people in a difficult situation. and makes them the perfect counterpart to Riddick's stoicism.
The second act plays up on Riddick's greatest strengths, his night vision and deadliness, and lets us enjoy the show as he toys with mercenaries who have come seeking the bounty on his head. The ways he stalks them silently, sets traps for them, and pits them against each other with mindgames are fantastic entertainment that also progresses the plot and further characterizes the various mercenaries and their competing interests. Of special note is Diaz (Dave Bautista), a quiet, thoughtful giant of a mercenary. Bautista brings an eloquence and subtlety to the role that makes him a joy to watch, despite his relatively small part.
Various crosses and double-crosses occur, but eventually the Riddick and the various mercenary groups are forced into more-or-less cooperating to fight for their survival against an alien horde. The aliens are terrifying, and the movie does an excellent job convincing us that nobody is ever really safe from them.
There are a few subplots along the way, and these compose the majority of the callbacks to the earlier series, but the main plot is direct without being boring. As the hero, Riddick's survival is never really in question, but his methods of dealing with problems are so astonishing that it's easy to just sit back and enjoy the ride.
The movie only has a few flaws. Riddick displays a level of foresight at times that makes it hard to believe it when he's actually taken by surprise. The motivations of some of the side players can be a little difficult to discern, and they occasionally act in ways that are hard to square with what we know about them. Lastly, I hate to say it, but I think Riddick is actually going soft. He clearly enjoys playing with his prey before killing them, but from what we've seen of his combat ability, he spends an inordinate amount of time trying to avoid killing people. But hey, you might be into that.
I commented on the wonderful CGI work that went into the tiger-jackals earlier, but actually, the entire movie is beautiful. The lighting, backgrounds, sets, and props all carry the distressed look that gives such a sense of realism to the best sci-fi (I'm specifically calling out Star Wars and Firefly here). The backgrounds, especially, are fantastically envisioned, conjuring up architecture from a civilization so ancient and long-lost that its dusty, solitary towers are the only remaining evidence of its existence. Through it all, the colors are perfectly suited to enhancing the atmosphere and drawing the eye to the highly-detailed surroundings.
If you're into that sort of thing (beauty, excitement, suspense), Riddick is fantastic. If you're not, then get on that. You're missing out.
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