What do you get after several box-office busts and your name is Vin Diesel? Why a $120 million production budget even though the preceding film in the series, which has hardly been mentioned, *cough* Pitch Black, was made for only $23 million. With that said, I can also say that I am glad Vin continues to get his second chances, hell, Fast and the Furious was only three years ago and what were the names of those other films anyway?
Skipping forward lets talk about the film where we find Vin Diesel reprising his role as Richard B. Riddick, or simply Riddick, a role that has become increasingly popular on the DVD circuit as Pitch Black has become somewhat of a cult classic.
So, what is the man that can see in the dark doing now? Saving the world of course as civilization on every planet is suddenly being threatened by a religious cult called Necromongers as they wage their religious war on the entire galaxy along with their creed, join us or die.
While Riddick is being hunted all across the galaxy he is also wanted by Aereon (Judi Dench) a member of the Elemental race who is seeking Riddick’s help to save the planet of Helion as she can offer up some information on Riddick’s past. While Riddick decides saving people just isn’t his thing, unless they are beautiful women such as Kyra (Alexa Davalos) or Jack from Pitch Black, he gets a “free” ride to rescue her from a maximum security prison. Meanwhile the Necromongers have moved in Helion and all hell is breaking loose.
Filled with tons of special effects The Chronicles of Riddick is a welcomed guest in theaters as the box-office seems to have been over-run by family fun flicks. It has been a long time since a good sci-fi film graced the big screen and Riddick holds its own giving us a taste of outer space warfare as we now have less than a year’s wait for the final chapter in the Star Wars saga.
While the movie does suffer from dialogue problems as Vin hasn’t proven to be the most verbose actor in recent history, but despite the several one liners I was able to look past them and enjoy a break from the norm. Unfortunately the filmmakers still had to water down Riddick a bit as it originally spawned an R rating from the MPAA before editing gave us the PG-13 version you will see in theaters. On the bright side it should prove for an interesting uncut version on DVD, which is almost a certainty.
Nevertheless, if action is your passion and you look to the stars for your heroes Riddick will satisfy your thirst, just don’t go in expecting a movie for the ages, rather expect a movie that will keep you interested for its duration.
