After some quick googling and wiki reading I was able to put together what happened. Long story short he was a Ranger, and he excelled at it. After promoting up, he was given a position where he was tasked with enforcing security. Turns out that basically meant murder and torture where he was stationed. He tried to gather evidence against the company, and they turned on him first. He was sent to his first prison, where he ended up escaping after a few years. When that happened the company he used to work for put a huge bounty on him, and he started being hunted. As he took out those who were after him, they were also added to his initial false charges. Do this for quite a few years, and you are now at this movie.
The movie starts with Riddick stranded on a sun scorched planet filled with predators, and horrible conditions. We see no real plant life, very little water, and nothing to really help him survive. If you read reviews on this film, this is one of the main points against it. The starts of the movie is just Riddick for about 20 minutes. We see him injured and beaten, and the only voice we hear is Vin Diesel as he tries to carry the movie along. I honestly had no issues with this part, but it was definitely slow paced. And as much as I like Vin, he doesn't have the acting ability to make a strong opening on his own. This portion of the film serves little purpose also, it mostly comes off as padding to help the overall run time. We see Riddick dealing with injuries, and fixing them in ways I could never imagine actually doing. We get it, Riddick is tougher then we are. After he manages to overcome his first obstacle, which also serves to set up something later on in the film, we get the actual story. He sees something on the horizon, and decides he can no longer stay on that planet. This is where the movie picks up, and turns into what you would expect from Riddick. He finds a merc station and sends out a distress call, with his image and name attached. This makes the Bounty hunters come in, and his plan becomes apparent. He leaves them a message saying something to the effect of "leave one ship and go, or stay and die." After giving prisons so much trouble in the past, Riddick's bounty is now worth double if he is dead, so the mercs decide to not go along with his plan.
Now if you are wondering how he ended up stranded on a planet, when he was the leader of a large group of people in the last movie.....well they do explain that. Let's just say he was not to thrilled with keeping with their customs, and they didn't like him because of that.
So we now have the set up, Riddick vs the Mercs. If that sounds familiar, well the rest of the movie will to. It does not play exactly like Pitch Black did, but it does play very similar. We also get to see the Riddick I know, where he shows discretion in his killing. Two merc groups come to the planet, each wanting something different from Riddick. One tells him as soon as they get there, they will kill him and put his head in a box. The other just wants to talk to him, and then will turn him over to the other group. The first group uses deadly weapons, while the seconds uses non lethal guns. Riddick treats each group very differently because of this. I won't say to much more, but it does kind of lend to the theory that he is not so bad after all.
Now because this is a Riddick film, you get him killing people. There are expectations from that as well. You expect him to have some one liners, and you expect him to kill somebody in a very dramatic way. Think the teacup scene from the earlier films. He turns a tea cup upside down, grind it on some rocks to form a rough edge, then plunges it into a guys chest. This movie has its teacup scene, Riddick is good at killing after all. However I can not for the life of me remember him breaking out any good one one liners. Between the other Riddick movies and games we have quite a few good quotes, but nothing seems to come from this one. It was kind of disappointing.
Something else that seemed off was the acting, mostly just Vin though. Katee Sackhoff who you may know as Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica is in the movie. She plays Dahl who works with the good Mercs led by Johns, which is name you should remember from the other movies. Her role was surprisingly light in the film, other then a few moments she really doesn't do much. She did well with the time she had though, and it seemed like if any of them could go toe to toe with Riddick, it may very well have been her. Speaking of Johns, if you remember he was killed in Pitch Black. So the Johns in this movie is his father, played by Matt Nable. He does well with the role, and was one of the more likable roles in the film. Really most of the acting was decent, even Batista who has no real experience yet did well enough with his role. Vin though just seemed off. It came off almost like he was tired, or just not all into this movie. Maybe he was trying to make Riddick more Methodical or Calm, seeing as he is getting older, but it just seemed odd to me. I wouldn't say he did poorly with the role by any means, but he didn't seem like the Riddick he used to be.
The action in the movie was well done, and pretty much what you would expect from the franchise. It is rated R unlike the last film, which was pg13 in the theaters. This lets them do more with the action. The fights come off more ruthless, and more gruesome. Riddick always comes off as a pure badass and this was no different. He is lethal, stealthy, and manipulates the mercs though out the film. And when the final chapter comes, all hell breaks loose. If you were wondering if Vin ever squares off against Batista, the answer is yes. Sadly it is the only fight I can say that was disappointing in the movie. It doesn't last very long, though it was nice to see when it finally did happen. If you just want a good action flick, this movie will satisfy that easily.
What if I didn't like the super powers from the last film? Well you are in luck. Riddick still has his eyes that let him see in the dark, but that furry explosion wave thing is out. There were quite a few places he could have used it, but he never does. I am guessing that took the criticism from the fans, and figured simply not mentioning it was the best way to proceed.
So we have a very solid action film, that plays similar to the first movie in the franchise. It is violent, and wors well with what little story it has. The acting is decent, and the fights and effects are well done. No real huge complaints from me on this one. It was nice to see more Riddick, after that last film I was thinking that may be it. If you liked Pitch Black, you should like this one. If you were turned off by Chronicles, consider giving this one a chance. I really enjoyed it, and will probably buy it when it comes out on blue ray.
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