BEFORE: Movie-wise, it's been a great week so far. Boy, I sure would hate to be the director of the film that has to follow "Avengers: Age of Ultron" AND "Guardians of the Galaxy"...
Vin Diesel (not his real name, I mean, come ON!) and Dave Bautista carry over from "Guardians of the Galaxy".
THE PLOT: Left for dead on a sun-scorched planet, Riddick finds himself up against an alien race of predators. Activating an emergency beacon alerts two ships: one carrying a new breed of mercenary, the other captained by a man from Riddick's past.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "The Chronicles of Riddick" (Movie #1,469)
AFTER: I'm going to take a minute and go read my reviews of the last 2 "Riddick" films, just so I can remember where I left off. Ah, that's right, Riddick fought the Necromongers in the last film, which may or may not have been set before "Pitch Black", I really couldn't tell. Does it even matter? That film left some lingering questions, not the least of which was, "What the hell are Vin Diesel and Judi Dench doing in the same film?" But it seems like that film ended with Riddick occupying the throne in charge of, umm, something.
Here it seems like they're trying to get the character back to his roots, as seen in "Pitch Black", where he can be trying to survive on a hostile planet, and then killing a bunch of people who deserve it. So, here's the plot of "Riddick": Riddick has to survive on a hostile planet, and then kill a bunch of people who deserve it. There, doesn't that feel much better? All's right with the world, a world which includes alien dogs, acid rain and "Alien"-looking creatures that will lure you to their waterholes and then eat you for lunch.
So it seems like Riddick got double-crossed by the Necromongers, or someone else - does it even matter? - and then left to die on a hostile world. Really, there's not much difference between a film with a guy stuck on an alien world and a guy stranded on an island, like "Six Days, Seven Nights", or a life-raft, like "All Is Lost". Hmm, I think I just spotted one of my running themes for 2015!
The film is sort of neatly divided into two parts, the first being nearly without dialogue, as Riddick figures out his surroundings and the best ways to deal with vicious predators - most of the time this means killing them, but if something looks like a dog, the natural inclination is to turn it into a pet. A pet that he tests out alien venom on, to use as an anesthetic - I suppose that counts as showing Riddick's softer side. All this allows him to eventually get to an outpost, where he can activate a beacon, and call some bounty hunters for a ride.
You see, here's the thing about space - it's big. Really, really big. Mind-numbingly huge. The chances of finding a lost planet are probably worse than finding a needle in a haystack - it's more like finding a needle in a field full of haystacks, without the aid of a magnet or a pitchfork. We can assume that someday there will be star-charts, but still - those planets are always moving around in their orbits, so a planet (or even a star) is never exactly where you left it. Someone's going to have to figure out how to factor all this in to get spaceships from place to place, but it's going to have to be someone smarter than me.
So that's where the homing beacon comes in, makes sense. After that, it's a battle of wits between Riddick and the two groups of hunters that show up. Riddick goes back into the Wolverine/James Bond mode, using all his tools and skills to take down his enemies and get off the planet. You can probably guess how it all shakes down.
Also starring Katee Sackhoff, Karl Urban (last seen in "The Chronicles of Riddick"), Jordi Molla (last seen in "The Alamo"), Matt Nable, Bokeem Woodbine (last seen in "Total Recall"), Keri Hilson.
RATING: 4 out of 10 power nodes
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