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“Riddick” isn’t going to change any lives, nor is anyone likely to remember it. It’s the third—and, for most, seemingly unwelcome—entry in the “Chronicles of Riddick” series, whose chapters are about as cleverly titled as those in the “Fast & Furious” franchise, that other Vin Diesel-driven brand.
Continuing the tale of the titular, night-vision-gifted character whose story began in 2000’s “Pitch Black,” this space-set creature feature/antihero study is the kind of cinematic blip that only got made because Universal saw a chance to cash in on a sellable name.
And yet, there’s something pure and refreshing about “Riddick,” an old-school, slimly-cast sci-fi actioner that’s drenched in CGI, but never wholly dependent on it. Set five years after this saga’s second installment, the film takes place on a desolate, perpetually brown-toned planet, where Riddick has wound up, abandoned, after the events of the previous movie. (In flashback, there are mentions of stuff like “Furya” and the “Necromongers,” which, admittedly this reviewer knows nothing about).
But anyone who appreciates the intimate terror of an isolated cast, who start out hunting and wind up being hunted, will find at least something to like in Diesel’s third go-round as a nocturnal killing machine. As Riddick observes, it’s not just him that the two sparring mercenary crews who respond to the planet’s beacon must contend with. There’s also a small army of slithery, scorpion-style mud creatures, who are spurred to hungry life when water meets dirt, and begin dispatching crew members en masse when a rainstorm rolls in.
“Riddick” is occasionally slow, intermittently ridiculous, and almost entirely testosterone-fueled (the lone female in the cast is a horny geek’s fantasy: a lipstick lesbian played by Katee Sackhoff. But for a 2013 pseudo-tentpole film about monsters in space, Riddick is alarmingly restrained, and its barebones approach, from budget on down, is a triumph for director and co-writer David Twohy. Let’s put it this way: There were far worse, “anticipated” movies this summer you happily wasted money on.
Riddick
R
Two-and-a-half reels out of four
Now playing at area theaters
Recommended Rental
The East
PG-13
Available Tuesday
Writer/producer/actress Brit Marling has been slowly becoming a strong young force in film, and after the misguided “Another Earth” (directed by Mike Cahill) and the overly conceptual “Sound of My Voice” (directed by Zal Batmanglij), the multitalent finally finds her invigorating groove with “The East” (also directed by Batmanglij). Co-starring Ellen Page and Alexander Skarsgård, it’s an eco-terrorist thriller with humanistic themes, which are evidently Marling’s hallmark.
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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