“Pitch Black” was the low-budget science fiction action film that made Vin Diesel into a movie star. Four years later, the sequel “The Chronicles of Riddick” was so bloated and silly that it nearly destroyed his career. With that history, it’s something of a surprise to find Diesel tempting fate yet again with “Riddick,” the third film in the franchise.
The good news is that “Riddick” is a lean monster flick that features some pretty good action and better-than-expected special effects for such a low-budget film. Most importantly, Diesel gets a chance to remind us all why he’s such a charismatic movie star, even if he’s showing off in what is essentially a glorified B movie.
The bad news is that this is seldom anything greater than a glorified B movie.
The action begins with the intergalactic fugitive, Riddick (Diesel), stranded on a desolate planet. Our gravel-voiced antihero is surrounded by hordes of hungry monsters, although they really aren’t ever all that dangerous to someone as lethal as Riddick. Two teams of bounty hunters pose a bigger challenge as they come searching for the reward that goes with Riddick’s head. Once again, the hunters are more of an obstacle, rather than a legitimate threat.
The plot is pretty much on autopilot, but “Riddick” isn’t a movie that needs an audience to think about a complicated story. This is simply the movie of a cool hero trying to survive the attack of some bounty hunters and a lot of vicious space monsters. Diesel is very appealing in the central role, more than holding the screen for the first quarter of the film where he’s left all alone except for those computer-generated creatures.
The rest of the human characters don’t fare as well. There’s some bad overacting going on here, although Katee Sackhoff does provide some welcome female fighting spirit as one of the bounty hunters forced to team up with her target in order to survive the film’s finale. Her casting is inspired, as there’s a substantial crossover between the “Pitch Black” and the new “Battlestar Galactica” fan bases.
“Riddick” won’t be regarded as a great science fiction film. I’m not even certain that it will jump-start the “Pitch Black” franchise. And the truth is that if “Riddick” was a better film, it would have been released earlier in the summer when it could have made a bigger splash.
That being said, “Riddick” is still an enjoyable space adventure that captures a lot of what made “Pitch Black” into a fan-favorite hit. It’s a lean, mean and unpretentious flick that will remind you why Diesel became a movie star in the first place.
