Review by Bob Ignizio
Vin Diesel's nocturnal anti-hero is back for a third go-around in
RIDDICK. And as the film
begins, Riddick is in pretty bad shape. He's stranded on an alien
planet, a victim of some double-crossing by the Necromongers from the
previous film, and has a broken leg. To make matters worse, the
planet is extremely inhospitable both in terms of terrain and native
fauna. The pterodactyl like fliers and feral dog like beasties are
bad enough, but the poisonous scorpion-like critters are the worst.
Nonetheless, Riddick manages to survive, along with one of the
dog-like creatures he has domesticated, and makes his way to an area
of the planet that is at least moderately civilized. It's just a
small outpost for bounty hunters, and Riddick is well aware that he's
a wanted man himself. Still, getting some kind of ship to land, even
one crewed by men who want to collect the price on his head, seems
Riddick's only hope for escape.
As it turns out, not one but two
groups of bounty hunters show up. The first to arrive is led by the
arrogant and greedy Santana (Jordi MollĂ ) just wants Riddick dead
(he's worth more that way). The second group is led by Boss Johns
(Matt Nable), father of the bounty hunter who had captured Riddick in
PITCH BLACK and he
just wants to know what happened to his son. There's eleven seasoned
bad-asses after Riddick altogether, the most notable being tough as
nails lesbian Dahl (Katee Sackhoff), musclebound merc Diaz (Dave
Bautista), and the devoutly religious bounty hunter Luna (Nolan
Gerard Funk). Riddick knows full well that a coming storm will bring
with it an onslaught of the scorpion creatures and tries to bargain
with the various parties hunting him so that everyone can just get
off the planet, but such reasonable resolutions wouldn't give us
much of a movie, now, would they?
The film is quite distinctly
broken into three parts, with the first section where Riddick has to
simply survive in a world with few resources while fending off the
various hostile native creatures being the best. The middle section
is largely concerned with the two factions of bounty hunters fighting
amongst each other as Riddick plays them off against each other for
his own ends. Finally, the film turns into an all-out creature battle
as everyone finally realizes that the scorpion monsters don't give a
much of a damn about anyone's aspirations to wealth or need for
personal closure; they just want to kill them all. Working together
is the only hope for survival, but the odds of that happening seem
pretty low.
What we have here is just a
good, solid B movie that knows what its audience wants and delivers
it. It may be a little bit slicker than a seventies Roger Corman New
World Pictures production, but unlike so many attempts to turn
drive-in movies into big budget blockbusters, RIDDICK
seems to have the same spirit, intelligence, and integrity as those
old exploitation films. It is unapologetically and unashamedly
R-rated, unpretentious entertainment geared towards bloodthirsty
action/sci-fi/horror fans, and for the most part that's just fine
with this reviewer. Solid B movie casting, too, with just about
everyone a perfect fit for their role and bringing life and depth to
what could easily have been cardboard characters.
That doesn't mean there aren't
aspects of the film that come up short, though. In particular,
there's an unpleasant vibe of casual misogyny that runs through the
film in the way Sackhoff's Dahl is treated by the other characters.
Yes, I'm aware most of the characters treating her in this way are
supposed to be unlikeable, and she tends to get the best of them in
the end, but the way the film treats threats of rape as almost good
natured ribbing just didn't sit well with me. On top of that, the
approach to Dahl's sexuality seems out of another era, like the late
sixties/early seventies. You know, when all a lesbian needed was one
good man to cure her of her sapphic ways. The film plays it coy and
doesn't show us whether or not Dahl switches teams, but it's almost
more annoying how it tries to have it both ways as to whether or not
she has it both ways. I'm probably already well into someone's idea
of spoiler territory here as it is, so I'll leave it at that.
Also kind of pointless is Luna's
religious fervor. This character and his beliefs get enough screen
time to make us think there's some point to them, but there's just no
payoff. His religion is made an issue, and then portrayed as neither
a positive or a negative, and the character has very little impact on
how things play out. I'm all for greater character development in
movies like this, but it has to have some point.
There are other little bits and
pieces here and there that could have been handled better, but
overall the film is entertaining. The aforementioned issues did
affect my enjoyment of the film, but not enough to ruin it
altogether. In fact for the most part, I had a good time with RIDDICK
in all his nasty but strangely honorable glory. 3 out of 4 stars.
Very fun, even if it is terribly-written and as dumb as you can get. Nice review Bob.
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