Riddick (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: David Twohy (Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick)
	Actors: Vin Diesel (XxX, Fast & Furious), Karl Urban (The Lord of the Rings 1-3, Dredd), Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica TV-series)
	Country: USA, GB
	Genre: Action, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 02.04.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Riddick (Diesel) is left for dead, stranded on an unknown planet full of dangers. The arrival of bounty hunters can mean his way out.
Review: As much as I like the little original B-serie movie Pitch Black (I would probably rate it 8/10), I found that the ten times more expensive sequel The Chronicles of Riddick was less surprising but watchable anyway (maybe 6/10). The derived animated episode Dark Fury was an interesting experiment, and short enough to be easy to watch. With more freedom on this movie, David Thowy and his buddy Vin Diesel tried to go back to what worked in the first movie. Unfortunately it all looks like deja-vu. I had read the the special effects looked cheap but I disagree. It is true that the spaceships don't look so good, but the several animals on the planet are well done. This being said, it was probably not necessary to have so many shots with special effects. The first movie worked very well without. This is probably the main mistake in this Riddick: trying to show too much. Then the story is quite slow and too much time is spent showing how Riddick is cool, listening to him delivering punch lines, copying emblematic poses that worked in Pitch Black, and showing how the bad guy really is bad. Karl Urban and Kathee Sackhoff don't really have roles worth mentioning. In the end it is still pleasant to watch (pure SF movies are too rare), but I can't help but being dissapointed.
Rating: 5 /10