Growling, muscle-bound slaphead Vin Diesel takes a well-deserved break from battling tanks with supercars in the “Fast and Furious” movies to instead battle hordes of CGI space monsters in the belated third instalment in the sci-fi action/horror series that first launched him to fame. Stripped down from the sprawling space opera pretensions of bizarre previous entry “The Chronicles of Riddick,” the simpler titled “Riddick” returns to the basic survival-horror premise of franchise kick-starter “Pitch Black,” as Diesel’s nocturnally sighted Furyan anti-hero is once again stranded on a desolate planet crawling with ferocious alien beasties.
Fanged jackal-dogs, venomous swamp scorpions and winged, pterodactyl-like creatures lurk in the dark, but the most dangerous predator prowling about this space rock is Riddick himself — as a team of intergalactic mercs are sorry to discover when they come to hunt down the wanted ex-con and he viciously hunts back. Harking back to the lean, mean, no-nonsense spirit of the gripping first instalment was a smart move — this is certainly more of a sequel to “Pitch Black” than “Chronicles” was — but loyal franchise helmer David Twohy takes it too far: in staying true not just to the simplicity but also the plot and setting of that 2000 cult hit, “Riddick” holds precious few surprises, with nothing on display we didn’t already see done better 13 years ago.
Diesel’s got the title character down pat, his guttural growls and unflinching demeanour making him both a formidable foe and an intriguing protagonist, and Twohy does good with a relatively modest $38 million budget — the film looks great, some dodgy creature effects aside. But for a follow-up to “Pitch Black,” this is too much of the same with little added or improved upon, and whatever goodwill the film builds up is soured by a far too flippant and repellently comical threat of corrective rape against Katee Sackhoff’s lesbian character Dahl.
Rating: 5/10
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