An Oscar contender this is not. It was awful, but I LOVED it!
If you are looking for great cinema, I know there is some out there somewhere, maybe in the next screening room, same theater. But…if you are looking for action, bad dialog, slashing, shooting, creatures, weird dogs /dingo-dongy thingies, some gratuitous nudity, Riddick kicking alien and human arse, then this is the movie for you!
Riddick is played by Vin Diesel, this being the third installment of the Riddick series: Pitch Black, Chronicles of Riddick and now , Riddick. He played the role like it was written with him in mind, not sure if it was, but it fit. His eyes are one of the coolest feature about this character, apparently he had his eyes “adjusted” when he was in prison, the effect: they have a violet starburst in the center, this allows him to see in the…c’mon, you know…pitch black!
The movie opens with Riddick being stranded on a barren, hot planet, not where he expected to be. There are alien creatures that resemble scorpions on crack, I think that’s a good way to put it. There is a dog-like creature, the dingo-dongy thing referred to that honestly looks like a cross between a zebra, hyena, cheetah, greyhound with the coolest ears. Riddick finds a puppy, his siblings are dead and he takes it with him, after fighting and killing one in the beginning of the movie, this one he raises from a pup, you can guess what happens.
Riddick realizes that he needs to get off this planet, he finds an outpost and signals some bounty hunters who come after him, two different teams; one that looks like they are homeless mercenaries that might sell each other out and the other, a polished, together team that has each others back. It’s one Riddick against eleven bounty hunters, hmmm, I wonder who’s going to come out on top.
Here’s what’s interesting about this movie. Riddick is a criminal, a convict and has been nothing else, with a bounty on his head, but…we are rooting for him, he’s the bad good guy in all this, how about them apples? The cool thing about Riddick is watching his mind work, watch him calculate, rationalize, strategize, there is a MacGuyver-esq quality to what he does, what I mean is that he looks at what’s around so that he can get himself out of whatever situation he is in that will probably save his life.
I almost said for the ladies for this comment, but I don’t want to discriminate…there is a scene where Riddick is, well, let’s just say you won’t be complaining, ok, I wasn’t complaining; there are also some gratuitous nekkid female shots. It’s interesting because these shots affected me in different ways; I am all for gratuitous violence or nudity if it’s warranted and here’s what I mean. There is a silhouette of Riddick on top of a rock, you can tell he’s in the all together, it makes sense [and no, this is not just because i think he’s hot], it makes sense because it is a beginning, almost a rebirth as he starts over, finding himself and his strengths and moving forward. There is a scene, it’s actually a flashback, to Riddick, when he was in a position of power, in his bedroom and there are four nude women, his concubines in his bed. This nudity makes sense, he is the man in charge, they are there to please him, in context, acceptable. Later, the only living female on the barren wasteland of a planet, she is washing up in the sink, topless. Here’s where I have issue…she was only washing her face and armpits and she was wearing a tank top for most of the movie, why does she need to take her top off to wash her face? Also, there are bad things outside the building, she’s supposed to be on her guard and here she is sponge bathing in the sink topless? There is one line that Riddick makes reference to this scene, but was it really necessary? Pointless nudity, see what I’m saying?
Another thing that got me…the language. This is a different race of beings, they are not human, they are not from earth. I get that the movie is in English so we can all understand it, but there were signs and posters like you would find here on earth and the cussing, it’s another solar system, planets and they’re using the same words we use, the f-bomb was dropped a few times, not an uncomfortable amount for anyone, I just want to know why they aren’t using made up words, just like they do in other shows/movies [frack, frail, anything!] I have to tell you, I was going on and on about some of these things and i had DCM in stitches he was laughing so hard!
I will tell you that for a good bit of the beginning of the movie, I was beginning to wonder if there would be any other humans in the movie! just be prepared, the others are coming, we have to build up to it and watch Riddick do his thing, with the jacked up scorpions and the puppy, it’s all setting the stage for the rest of the movie.
Overall, I really liked this movie; I laughed, I gasped, I cringed, i hid my eyes and covered my ears [who wants to hear the screaming!] and i recommend it for anyone who’s into these kinds of movies.
Daddy – go for it! [but, I don’t think that LD will enjoy it!]
Peaches Prattlings 