“Riddick”: A rehash of “Pitch Black”?
Jan Thijs/Photo courtesy of Universal Studios
VIN DIESEL reprises his role as the antihero Riddick–a dangerous, escaped convict wanted by every bounty hunter in the known galaxy–in “Riddick”, the latest chapter of the groundbreaking saga that began with the hit sci-fi film “Pitch Black”.
In the year 2000, “Pitch Black” was released to modest reviews, and was (next to “The Fast and The Furious”) one of the more popular movies to thrust actor Vin Diesel into the spotlight. A sequel, “The Chronicles of Riddick” was released in 2004, again receiving modest reviews.
On Sept. 6, 2013 the third movie in the series debuted, simply entitled “Riddick”. In all honesty, you’d be better off watching “Pitch Black” again/for the first time since it’s basically the same movie with a less in-shape Vin Diesel.
The movie opens with a very “Robinson Crusoe” vibe that I was actually able to enjoy. New environment, new situation for the character, and even a return to the more “animalistic” side of Riddick’s character are good things across the board from the first half of the movie. Then the bounty hunters show up.
Slap on the same situation and the same dialogue and BOOM! All of a sudden it’s a total rehash of the first movie, albeit with different actors (playing the same type of characters) and new monsters (that resemble one another a little more then I liked) and Diesel’s title character saying THE SAME LINES!! Now it could be a simple homage on the part of the director to his first movie, but it comes across as just another version of the original movie and not a sequel in the series.
Karl Urban returned as “Vaako”, one of the primary antagonists from the second movie, but only for a few minutes. The necromongers, the primary enemy in “Chronicles”, were shown in a handful of flashbacks but then disappeared altogether from the remainder of the movie. Most likely the necromonger menace, along with Urban’s “Vaako” will be referenced in more detail if (and when) another Riddick movie is planned to hit theatres.
There’s decent action all in all, and Diesel still can play the type of character we’ve seen in the previous Riddick movies, but I’d say wait until the movie hits Netflix and save yourself a trip to the theaters on this one. Not worth the overpriced ticket sales, or the screaming kids you’ll have to deal with.
Interesting appearances include Dave Bautista, former WWE wrestler and current actor/mixed martial artist, as “Diaz”, one of the mercenaries in the movie’s collection of gun-toting characters.
Fun fact for all Marvel/ Comic fans: it’s rumored that Bautista will be starring alongside Diesel in Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy”, scheduled to hit theaters sometime in 2014.
