Fight Evil With Vin Diesel (Heh heh, get it? I...I rhymed...a-and it's like the tagline on the...poster).

Rating: 7/10 (23 January 2019)

(P) Positives
(N) Negatives
(?) Other points/Neither positive or negative

(P) Slow-burn sci-fi thriller about a group of civilians and a convict crash-landing on a deserted planet which at first seems devoid of life - before an eclipse occurs that blocks out all light on the planet, causing murderous creatures to fly out of the ground and attack the shipwrecked survivors; focus on suspense, tension etc. rather than all-out action; in addition, despite this film being a "slow-burn" story, the pacing still feels brisk and avoids being sluggish or boring.

(P) The story is strong enough to keep you invested in what is happening (even if the film can get a bit cheesy at times, and sometimes makes you want to yell at the characters (see the negative point below that starts with "Several moments in the plot...").

(P) Each of the crash-landed survivors are all memorable and are performed well (Richard B. Riddick, the convict with mystery, myth and fear surrounding his persona; Carolyn Fry, the strong-willed but empathetic pilot of the crash-landed ship; William J. Johns, the 'merc' who has a history with Riddick and initially is believed to be a cop; Paris, an antiques merchant with a penchant for alcohol, luxuries and relaxation; the Imam and his three sons traveling to New Mecca etc.).

(P) World-building is subtle but effective; while borrowing heavily from many aspects of a typical science-fiction story, it also employs lots of horror, grittiness, dark themes as well as integrating aspects of the modern day into it (the most immediately obvious of which is the Islamic religion that the Imam and his sons practice) - all of which helps to differentiate it from other sci-fi universes).

(P) Cinematography is adequate; although specific praise must be given to the lighting as, not only is there a great deal of variety, but it's used in ways which service the film's overall atmosphere and grittiness.

(N) Several moments in the plot either didn't make sense ("Wait, how did they manage to get Riddick, this highly cunning and effective killer, chained up twice? Was it part of his plan to get captured several times, or are we just going to look over this plot contrivance as it puts Riddick in a position where he's 'forced' to help the survivors get off the planet?" Or "Paris, the antiques merchant, is killed after crawling away from the rest of the group in a moment of panic, accidentally disconnecting the lights and putting everyone else in danger - despite knowing full well that the creatures on the planet avoid the light as much as possible as it burns their skin. Why? Why would he do that? That seems pretty foolish for a character who, while somewhat vain and lazy, has shown a protectiveness towards some of the characters (like Jack) and, at the very least, has been shown to be intelligent.") or were pretty cheesy (Riddick looking back to Jack being attacked by one of the creatures, having a change of heart and going back to save her).

(N) A number of editing choices e.g. the distortion effect over the scene where Fry is crash-landing the plane, the extreme wide-angle lens in a few shots, "flopping" the image back and forth horizontally very quickly (?), Johns walking up to Riddick's discarded chains being a quickfire series of jump-cuts for some reason etc. were distracting and could have been handled better.

Overall: 7/10, perhaps a high 6 (?) and maybe a low 8.