{"id":2246,"date":"2013-10-01T11:51:28","date_gmt":"2013-10-01T18:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/?p=2246"},"modified":"2013-10-01T11:51:41","modified_gmt":"2013-10-01T18:51:41","slug":"2246","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/2013\/10\/01\/2246\/","title":{"rendered":"Riddick"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Riddick\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Directed by: David Twohy
\nStarring: Vin Diesel, Jordi Molla, Matt Nable, Katee Sackhoff, Dave Bautista, Bokeem Woodbine, Roul Trujillo, Danny Blanco Hall
\nRated: Rated R for strong violence, language and some sexual content\/nudity<\/p>\n

The \u201cChronicles of Riddick\u201d franchise (which began with the fabulous B-movie scifi\/horror flick \u201cPitch Black\u201d in 2000) has grown to include two movies, a direct-to-DVD animated feature, and two video games. Now, another installment on film has come out, this time titled simply \u201cRiddick.\u201d Rather than following the previous film (\u201cThe Chronicles of Riddick\u201d) and focusing on interstellar politics and opulence, series creator David Twohy has wisely returned to the formula that made the first film so good: a bunch of people who don\u2019t necessarily get along forced to work together to survive a mass assault by freaky-looking monsters. In the vein of all great sequels, \u201cRiddick\u201d is more of the same, but different.<\/p>\n

The film opens with an unnecessarily long but still enjoyable prologue, in which our antihero protagonist, Riddick (Vin Diesel) finds himself betrayed and left for dead on a deserted and desert-like planet. As he sets his broken leg and slowly makes his way toward shelter, he talks the audience through a couple flashbacks of how he got there. He captures one of the dog-like creatures on the planet and keeps it as a pet, and eventually finds a small station where he can summon emergency transport.<\/p>\n

Of course, those of us who know Riddick know that, as a serial killer, escaped convict, and general terrible person, he won\u2019t exactly be getting hold of a ride off planet in a nice way.<\/p>\n

Two separate bounty hunter gangs respond to the call hoping to cash in on the price on his head. There\u2019s Santana (Jordi Molla), a hot-tempered juvenile twit, and his crew, and then there\u2019s Boss Johns (Matt Nable) and his well-trained team, including Dahl (Katee Sackhoff), who has the unenviable role of being the token girl. Fans of the Riddick series will recognize Boss Johns\u2019 last name \u2013 he has a bone to pick with Riddick that has nothing to do with taking him in.<\/p>\n

The two crews get off to a bad start, and things are further complicated when a shift in the environment unleashes an army of venomous creatures strong enough to punch through metal and able to strike fast as a cobra.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot to like here. Diesel created the role of Riddick in the first film, elevating it from plain mediocrity to thoroughly enjoyable cult-classic status. He\u2019s in his element, able to use his charisma and physical acting skills to great effect. <\/p>\n

The effects are mostly excellent \u2013 computer graphics have come a long way from 2000, when \u201cPitch Black\u201d graced the screen. The creatures are well designed, and the dog-like thing Riddick adopts is realistic enough for us to empathize with (which isn\u2019t a wise move for the audience \u2013 remember, this is a horror film. Don\u2019t get attached to anybody except maybe our hero).<\/p>\n

The supporting cast are mostly solid. Boss Johns isn\u2019t written all that well, but Nable makes him believable most of the time anyway. Dahl beating up Santana every time he hits on (or straight-up assaults) her is pretty cool \u2013 Sackhoff handles the role of the only girl on an all-boy team perfectly. Sadly, the script betrays her at the end, when her protestations of never sleeping with men are overridden by Riddick\u2019s aura of awesomeness (or something. It\u2019s never explained why she decides to hook up with him). <\/p>\n

But really, for a B-movie of any genre, let alone a sci-fi\/horror one, to treat women as anything but eye candy and victim fodder is amazing, so by that standard \u201cRiddick\u201d is awesome. It\u2019s a pretty low standard, mind, but still. If that doesn\u2019t bother you, and you like cheesy sci-fi horror, give \u201cRiddick\u201d a look. If you dislike any of the things in the previous sentence, stay away. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u201cChronicles of Riddick\u201d franchise (which began with the fabulous B-movie scifi\/horror flick \u201cPitch Black\u201d in 2000) has grown to include two movies, a direct-to-DVD animated feature, and two video games. Now, another installment on film has come out, this time titled simply \u201cRiddick.\u201d Rather than following the previous film (\u201cThe Chronicles of Riddick\u201d) and focusing on interstellar politics and opulence, series creator David Twohy has wisely returned to the formula that made the first film so good: a bunch of people who don\u2019t necessarily get along forced to work together to survive a mass assault by freaky-looking monsters. In the vein of all great sequels, \u201cRiddick\u201d is more of the same, but different.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[94,76,49],"class_list":["post-2246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-b-movie","tag-horror","tag-sci-fi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Riddick.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s2oSX4-2246","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2246"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2249,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246\/revisions\/2249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}