Riddick

Riddick was one of the weirdest and most fun mainstream movies I saw all year.  And I like my movies weird.

This film picks up five years after The Chronicles of Riddick.  Riddick gives up his position as leader of the Necromongers in exchange for the location of his home world.  His is betrayed and despite killing the traitors, he is abandoned with a broken leg on a strange planet.  Riddick finds a building with a distress beacon.  He activates it in hopes of luring in a ship that can take him off the planet.  But he ends up calling in two ships: one with a ragtag crew of bounty hunters and the other with high tech mercenaries.  And they all want Riddick.  To make matters worse, a massive thunderstorm has unleashed swarms of vicious monsters and they are heading Riddick's way.

Riddick is essentially a bigger, weirder remake of Pitch Black.  I'm going to be using the word "weird" a lot in regards to Riddick.  Everything that happens in it is bizarre and often inexplicable.  The dialogue is laughable in its attempts to be hardcore.  The sexual elements of the film are baffling.  This is a movie wherein Riddick wanders around a desert fighting water-scorpions with the help of his trusty space dog.  Then he rides around on his space motorcycle.  Then he compliments a lesbian on her nipple color before promising that she'll ask him for sex (and she does).

The action scenes are crazy and gloriously over-the-top.  While the alien hordes are just a retread of Pitch Black, the critters are different enough to make the fights interesting.

I had a really, really fun time watching this movie.  That said, I'm not claiming that it's a very good movie.  It's mostly just hokey and weird and off-the-wall.  If you like the previous Riddick movies, then you'll probably get a kick out of Riddick.  If you just like bizarre, action cinema, then you'll probably get a kick out of Riddick.  If you like coherent movies with intriguing plots and strong dialogue, this is not for you.

6 out of 10