Let me confess this at the outset: I found it very hard to resist the temptation of giving the titles ’Riddick-ulous’ or ’Chronic case’ to this movie review! From this statement alone you could easily guess what i’m going to say about it!
It’s one of those silly movies again, in which the good guy fights the scum of the universe - the only difference here is that the guy is not so good & they call it the ’underverse’!
Plot? Well...at the beginning ( continuing from the I part ’Pitch Black’) Riddick ( Vin Diesel ) is a fugitive carrying a bounty on his head. He goes after the people who put the bounty on him to a planet called Helion ..There he learns from a spirit like character Aereon about an evil race called ’Necromangers’. The Necros are taking a grand tour of the universe going from planet to planet and order the people there to convert to their religion or die. It turns out that the only race who could oppose them is the Furions and the only Furion left is , of course, Riddick. When the Necros come to know this, they are also after him..
Well..you might have heard about twists & turns in a plot. Here you come across a roller coaster ride for a plot! Jumping from planet to planet it goes on and on that it’ easy to lose track of whom Riddick is fighting with for whom.
Other aspects: The fight sequences are too fast to comprehend, let alone appreciate. The shaky camera & fast cut editing make you feel like you are on a roller coaster along with the story this time! The sets are good, though. Likewise the BG score is also very effective. Nothing great about graphics.
It’s a mystery how such an amazingly talented actor Judy Dench agreed to play the unimpressive role of an ’element’ here, without even a solid physical body. It’s a total waste.
As for Vin Diesel’s performance, it just gets repetitive with him simply pulling out his swimmers’ goggles and mouthing corny one-liners in his effort to play the hyper macho bad guy.
Watch it only if you are a die-hard fantasy fan or you get to watch it for free like I could, as part of Shaastra 2004 techfest of IIT-M!
Watch it with: whoever is ready to pay!
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