RIDDICK Blu-ray Review

I'm not sure if you can actually will a movie into existence, but Riddick comes pretty damn close to proving it's possible. The first film, 2000's Pitch Black, made some decent money in theaters and did pretty well on video, which helped launch Vin Diesel's career as a leading man. After making Universal a buttload of cash on the first The Fast And The Furious (and scoring again with Sony's XXX the following year), Universal had no problem spending well over $100m to make a spinoff sequel to Pitch Black called The Chronicles of Riddick, which would be the start of an epic trilogy (which would be the LOTR to Pitch Black's Hobbit, because back when you said "Hobbit" you referred to one thing). Alas, the film didn't do the monster business they expected it to, and apart from a couple of Riddick video games (the first of which being one of the best "movie games" ever), it seemed like any further adventures of Richard B. Riddick would exist only in Diesel's mind.

But then something magical happened: 2009's Fast & Furious, the first film Vin starred in since the original*, made a ton of money, shocking everyone and relaunching the Fast series into a true juggernaut - the SIXTH film outgrossed them all, unheard of outside of the Bond series. And Vin's starpower returned along with it, so he used his clout to raise the money for another Riddick movie - again with writer/director David Twohy - that would return the series to its roots with a more grounded, "Riddick and some people who hate him band together to fight monsters" tale. But if you are one of the crazy nuts who really enjoyed Chronicles (I found it to be way too silly and trying way too hard to be the next Dune/Star Wars, and was angry that they killed off the other Pitch Black survivors, though I quite liked the character of Toombs), fear not - it hasn't been ignored.

Indeed, while it can't possibly be the original idea they had for a Chronicles followup, it sort of functions as a direct sequel, surprisingly enough. At the beginning of the film, Riddick is stranded on yet another alien planet, and after 10 minutes of his trying to get his bearings there (and fighting off some creatures), we are treated to a lengthy flashback sequence that picks up where Chronicles left off. Riddick has become the overlord of the Necromongers (...), a position he doesn't really want. Which is great news for Vaako (Karl Urban), his nemesis from the previous film from whom Riddick inadvertently stole the throne. Vaako tricks Riddick into believing that he has found the latter's home planet Furya, and arranges for him to go. However, once there, Riddick realizes that he is not on Furya, and before he can do anything about it Vaako's men attempt to kill him, leaving him for dead. It's the sort of sequence that could have been explained in a few lines of dialogue, sparing them some of the movie's somewhat bloated runtime (and preventing them from having to get Urban - whose career has also taken off considerably since then - back for a cameo), but it speaks to Diesel and Twohy's admirable commitment to this character and series, and adds some scope to a movie that puts every single dollar on screen.

The film has a sort of episodic structure; if you ignore the flasback, the first act is basically Cast Away - Riddick is stuck somewhere and has to find water and food, defend himself when necessary, etc. He even makes a friend, but instead of a volleyball it's an alien hyena thing that functions as a dog. Apart from occasional voiceover this sequence is nearly dialogue-free, letting the visuals alone tell us what Riddick is up to (such as when he builds up an immunity to a creature's poison). After a while he stumbles across a mercenary outpost, which is what sets up the second mini-movie: a sort of slasher scenario where two opposing teams of mercs arrive to get the bounty on Riddick. Riddick wants them to leave him one ship and take off in the other, but you know they won't do that, so instead he just lets them fight it out a bit while sticking in the shadows and offing a couple of the guys with traps and such. It's this sequence that seems to have inspired the most negativity toward the movie, as there's a female among the group (Katee Sackhoff) that draws some rapey attention from Santana (Jordi Mollà), the leader of the other merc team, and even Riddick himself. At one point Riddick suggests that he will go "balls deep" into the woman, who alludes to being a lesbian.

But I don't see it as offensive at all. In fact, as Devin mentioned during the film's theatrical run, the film has a more than slight homoerotic bent to it - Riddick is seen seemingly rejecting a bed full of women, and part of its climax is having a guy "ride bitch" on Riddick's "hog" (a space motorcycle, basically). So if you just go all out and assume Riddick is a gay man, his "threats" to Sackhoff's Dahl come off more like a bit of good-natured ball-busting, because he's actually kind of charmed and impressed with her (since she has proven to be a formidable asskicker, beating the shit out of Mollà's character) and maybe even sees her as his female equivalent. Ms. Sackhoff made a name for himself playing a strong female character (in a role originally played by a man, in fact), so I don't see her taking a job on a relatively low budget film (read: one that probably wasn't paying her much) that had any true misogyny behind it - seems she'd have objections to it if we're supposed to take it at face value (same goes for her final lines to him - to me it seems like she's mocking him given his predicament, and he in turn is amused at the irony).

Anyway, once they capture Riddick, the third part begins, one that's basically a sped up remake of Pitch Black as night falls and brings a swarm of creatures that look like a cross between a stingray and a bat. It even has a direct tie to that film's events - one of the mercs is the father of the Cole Hauser character from Pitch Black, and wants to know how his son died (he is convinced Riddick "ghosted" him, naturally). So a grieving father believes this man killed his son, but needs him to survive - it's a fun dynamic, good enough to overlook the fact that the actor is way too young to be Cole Hauser's father. Again, this is a movie that could have just had Vin Diesel punching monsters for two hours and it'd probably have made just as much money, but Diesel and Twohy really believe in this universe that they've set up and seem hellbent on making it as "lived in" as possible. In fact, the extended cut of the Blu-ray has a new ending that suggests it's heading back to Chronicles territory, which I'd be worried about if it didn't mean the possibility that Toombs would make his grand return in the next movie.

That and an extended flashback sequence are pretty much the only things added to the director's cut, which runs about 8 minutes longer in total. The Blu-ray (which, like nearly all major studio releases of recent theatrical films, has a great transfer and sound mix) has both versions, and the only reason to watch the longer one is if you hope this movie won't be the end of the series. Strangely, one of the bonus features, titled Riddick: Blindsided, is merely an animated version of the longer flashback, making it a rather bizarre inclusion on the Blu-ray since you've already seen it (the DVD only has the theatrical cut). But it's also the only bonus feature that's NOT a ten-minute fluffy promotional piece; while some of them have spoilers and thus are better suited to those who have seen the movie, they all have that unmistakably "corporate" tinge to them, making them worth watching while you fold laundry or something, but hardly essential and nothing you'd ever watch again. That is, with one exception - I was impressed by the feature on the production design ("Riddickian Tech"), as they loaded up their ships and such with a lot of detail you'll never see, and even though the bulk of the movie takes place outside it was all shot on a tiny stage with greenscreens everywhere.

Riddick could have used some pace-tightening, and Mollà's team of mercs are largely anonymous (it wasn't until I watched the bonus feature about them that I caught most of their names), but otherwise I had a blast with this film that I was pretty sure I would never see. When Diesel used to talk about doing another film I would get flashbacks to John Travolta being convinced that they would make the second half of Battlefield Earth, but god bless him (and Fast & Furious fans) for getting Riddick made after all. A fourth film is clearly desired; as long as this Blu-ray meets expectations I have little doubt they'll get it done.

*Apart from his cameo in Tokyo Drift, that is. And, as we learned when Riddick was hitting theaters, Vin agreed to do that 30 second appearance if the studio gave him back the rights to this character. That Riddick ended up being distributed by Universal anyway is just coincidence.