Riddick (DVD REVIEW)
Riddick
DVD Review
by Kam Williams
Third
Installment of Sci-Fi Franchise Finds Vin Diesel Reprising Role as Alien
Antihero
When we first met Richard B. Riddick
(Vin Diesel) in Pitch Black, the notorious criminal had been arrested by a
bounty hunter and was being transported to prison when the spaceship
encountered a comet and had to make a crash-landing on an uncharted planet. He
escaped, and proceeded to elude his captors in a gruesome struggle for survival
which would consume most of their lives.
The higher attrition-rate sequel
served up more of the same while, at the point of departure of this episode, we
find the feral title character still at large but marooned on yet another
desolate planet. Now, he’s being hunted by two teams of badass mercenaries, one
led by the father (Matt Nable) of the bounty hunter he’d wasted in the
original.
Although Riddick is wanted dead or
alive, the reward is double if he’s brought back in a body bag. Of course,
that’s easier said than done, since this seemingly-indomitable alien from
planet Furya was blessed with superhuman strength, intuition, willpower and
night vision, traits which combine to make him a formidable enemy, even when
outnumbered badly by pursuers armed to the teeth.
So, this installment boils down to
an intergalactic posse’s attempt to apprehend Riddick as he tries to figure out
a way to hijack one of the rockets in order to return to his faraway homeland
teeming with water, grass and other signs of life. Too bad the scriptwriters of
this boring installment ran out of new ideas for their flagging franchise.
Consequently, Riddick does little
more than generate a vague sense of déjà vu between the barren backdrop (except
for a swarm of voracious critters) and the familiar ways in which the elusive
antihero’s adversaries are dispatched. After all, how many different ways can
you lop off a head or gut a guy so his entrails spill out?
This edition even includes another
round of titillation coming courtesy of a token blonde, in this case Katee
Sackhoff as a lipstick lesbian whose sexual preference tends to frustrate the
testosterone-blinded members of the all-male crew sharing the space station’s
cramped quarters. Nevertheless, job one remains tracking Riddick with the
assistance of dubious “futuristic” technology explained by what might best be
best described as pseudo-scientific nuttery.
A derivative disappointment that’s
more of an uninspired remake than a groundbreaking sequel.
Fair (1 star)
Rated R for profanity, nudity, sexuality and graphic
violence
Running Time: 119 minutes
Distributor:
Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Blu-ray/DVD Combo
Pack Extras: Meet the Mercs; Vin’s Riddick; Riddick: Blindsided; Unrated
Director’s Cut; The World of Riddick; Riddickian Tech; and The Twohy Touch.
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