Riddick

You just got to love this character. Otherwise you won’t understand this movie. Riddick was always a peculiar combination of Conan and Star Wars and that still applies. It departs almost immediately from the lightly traced storyline from the previous movie in the excellent introduction where R settles on a deserted planet (with monsters) and gets a dog. It continues in the slightly modified spirit of Pitch Black. There’s a lot of slime dripping and bloodshed and we are treated to two full-frontals (although... Katee Sackhoff only shows one). The monsters bear a tolerable resemblance to our favorite xenomorph and Diesel’s gravelly voice has everything under control. A pleasantly wasted two hours. I certainly want to see the next part and see Furya. (18/09/2013)

After the majority reaction, Twohy sensed that a new space opera wasn’t going to grow on Riddick's shoulders and he returned meekly to the waters of the pitch-black prologue, forgetting what made it good thirteen years ago (a strong moment of surprise from the new protagonist caught not only the audience by surprise, but apparently Furyan's creators behind the camera as well); the second third, playing on the "Riddick the Predator" note, is a discharge, but the first is a lengthy prologue with no substance because we know almost everything anyway, and the final act is a pathetic avalanche that definitively buries Riddick as the legend we craved and never really got. (04/10/2014)

The Chronicles of Riddick did not receive the desired response from the audience after the surprising success of Pitch Black, so David Twohy decided to humbly return to what once worked, but with a bigger budget and ambitions. Thus, Riddick repeats the pattern of Pitch Black with all its pros and cons. I'm just not sure if the logical lapses and the B-movie vibe oozing out of every shot will be appreciated by the fans of the first installment. After all, they have aged and the competition is fierce. I didn't enjoy the first film, so I didn't find a connection even to the final part of the trilogy. However, the characters of the two rival mercenary gangs were quite interesting, and if it weren't for the genre clichés of routine action sci-fi films that seemed so ridiculous to me, I would give it three stars despite its numerous flaws. Overall impression: 40%. (18/03/2019)

Exactly the same league as the first part. I shamefully skipped the second part, but it's not like I think I'm missing out on anything. Seriously, it's absolutely the same league, just with a slightly different team. It has almost identical plot, almost identical twists, just added about half more CGI, sharp profanity plus one space dog. My father lured me into Riddick because he has a weakness for these films. However, I only had the familiar déjà vu from Pitch Black. Nothing more. (25/07/2014)

Basically a franchise reboot. It has almost everything in common with the first one: a tight group of people, a survival style - meaning no extravagant plot, no mythology, we don't learn anything additional. The script relies only on how diverse the characters are and how strong the motivation of each of them is to survive, you won't find much else, maybe a digital dog and a few well-made creatures. The chemistry between the characters works quite well and there are also a few decent lines and funny situations in the end. It's not completely stupid or bad, but it will be disappointing for those expecting a continuation of the second film. This is solely about Riddick being such an interesting film character that will make squeeze some money for a movie ticket. (09/09/2013)