Riddick
Rated R (violence, gore, brief nudity)
Written and directed by David Twohy
** 1/2 out of ****
If there was such a thing as an impressionistic action character, it would be Richard B. Riddick.
Years ago, I saw "Pitch Black", and thought it was a perfectly fine B-grade sci-fi flick. Solid premise (a planet with multiple suns that had constant light until an eclipse, creatures that hunted with sonar, a bad ass with night vision), decent story (a group of people who depend on a murderer to survive), everything hit the right notes. It was small, self-contained and fun.
Then, "The Chronicles of Riddick" came out, and it tried to be, like, seven things at once. There just wasn't enough room in the movie for all the ideas it had. However, it was designed within an inch of its life. It LOOKED amazing, but, it FELT impressionistic. Characters and situations were sketched out, but never fleshed out. Concepts were introduced, but, it's like we had to (along with the actors) fill in the blanks.
In "Riddick", the series has returned to its roots, as it were. It's small, self-contained, and has an absolutely gleeful amount of gore.
And it's still impressionistic. Riddick (Vin Diesel) is a bad man. When we last saw him, he had become Lord Marshall of the Necrons ("The what of the who?" You ask. And I nod in agreement.), but, apparently, things happened, and he's stuck on this planet. With monsters. And a dog. And he somehow determines that something bad is coming, so, he finds a merc/bounty hunter way station and calls in two ships with a distress beacon. One is only looking for the bounty on Riddick, the other is looking for answers from him. And then violence happens.
The movie looks great. It was obviously filmed on location in Green Screen National Park, with additional scenes filmed in Available For A Few Months Memorial Soundstage, but the design more than makes up for it. Everything looks lived-in and detail was not skimped on. The team loves this world they've created, and it shows. The acting isn't going to win any awards, but that's fine. David Bautista is not a bad actor, and I've had a crush on Katee Sackoff for years, but, we come to this little sticking point:
How does Riddick know what he knows? He seems to be a genius in tactics, he apparently understands alien biology and human behavior, but none of the how or why is presented. I know that there is TONS of backstory that isn't put on screen, but I want to see it. "He's a bad ass" is fine for a character sketch, but if a psychopath all of a sudden displays sympathy or caring, I want to know WHY.
The characters aren't one-dimensional, but, in movies like this, with worlds that aim for space opera epicness, you need more than impressionism.
