Despite being probably the most quality inconsistent franchise in recent memory, I've always like the Riddick films to various degrees. "Pitch Black" was a great intro for the character while "Chronicles of Riddick" got away from itself a bit but was still fun. My own personal favorite though is actually the animated short "Dark Fury," and I kind of wish the makers of this film had done three shorts rather than make this movie. Because there are three extremely separate and distinct sections in this film, and they vary in quality as greatly as the rest of the franchise has.
The first, and by far strongest, section is a straight forward survival story. Riddick has been left for dead on a near barren planet and has to figure out how to survive. He has to work his way around the local wildlife and figure out how to get the essentials he needs to keep from dying on this rock of a planet. This is all done with almost no dialog, and it's possibly the best thing that's ever been done with the character. No macho one-liners, no ridiculous mythology, just one complete bad-ass surviving on his own.
Then the mercenaries hunting Riddick show up and the film shifts into its second section. This chunk of the film is told primarily from the perspective of the mercenaries, of which there are two competing teams. Riddick himself becomes something of like the boogie man in this scenario, popping up to pick off the mercs but otherwise sticking to the shadows and occasionally messing with their heads. While not as strong as the first section it's still an interesting take. Had this been a stand alone piece it would have worked like gangbusters, but the shift in perspective is a bit jarring coming off the heels of the first segment which focused so exclusively on Riddick himself.
The final, and regrettably weakest, portion of the film is a straight up retread of "Pitch Black" where the characters who haven't already been killed have to band together in order to survive a wave of monsters and escape the planet. How badly this segment apes the original "Pitch Black" really drags the rest of the film down, especially since it's meant to be the overall climax of the movie. It's serviceable, but if you've seen "Pitch Black" then you've seen it already, and even if you haven't it's still not nearly as interesting as the first two portions of the film.
This really does feel like they took three ideas and strung them together to make one film, and the flow is just as clunky as that description makes it sound. The film might have gotten away with it if the segments didn't get weaker and weaker with each one. Starting on the high note and ending on the low note just isn't how you want any film to progress. Had these been done as separate shorts then the first segment would probably have been my new favorite Riddick story, with the middle segment still being a good time. But by forcing it to be a feature length film and ending on the weakest note possible it bogs down the entire experience. As a Riddick fan it was worth seeing the once, but I doubt I'll ever feel the need to revisit this one.
The first, and by far strongest, section is a straight forward survival story. Riddick has been left for dead on a near barren planet and has to figure out how to survive. He has to work his way around the local wildlife and figure out how to get the essentials he needs to keep from dying on this rock of a planet. This is all done with almost no dialog, and it's possibly the best thing that's ever been done with the character. No macho one-liners, no ridiculous mythology, just one complete bad-ass surviving on his own.
Then the mercenaries hunting Riddick show up and the film shifts into its second section. This chunk of the film is told primarily from the perspective of the mercenaries, of which there are two competing teams. Riddick himself becomes something of like the boogie man in this scenario, popping up to pick off the mercs but otherwise sticking to the shadows and occasionally messing with their heads. While not as strong as the first section it's still an interesting take. Had this been a stand alone piece it would have worked like gangbusters, but the shift in perspective is a bit jarring coming off the heels of the first segment which focused so exclusively on Riddick himself.
The final, and regrettably weakest, portion of the film is a straight up retread of "Pitch Black" where the characters who haven't already been killed have to band together in order to survive a wave of monsters and escape the planet. How badly this segment apes the original "Pitch Black" really drags the rest of the film down, especially since it's meant to be the overall climax of the movie. It's serviceable, but if you've seen "Pitch Black" then you've seen it already, and even if you haven't it's still not nearly as interesting as the first two portions of the film.
This really does feel like they took three ideas and strung them together to make one film, and the flow is just as clunky as that description makes it sound. The film might have gotten away with it if the segments didn't get weaker and weaker with each one. Starting on the high note and ending on the low note just isn't how you want any film to progress. Had these been done as separate shorts then the first segment would probably have been my new favorite Riddick story, with the middle segment still being a good time. But by forcing it to be a feature length film and ending on the weakest note possible it bogs down the entire experience. As a Riddick fan it was worth seeing the once, but I doubt I'll ever feel the need to revisit this one.