Intense action with a straightforward story

Rating: 8/10 (1 March 2000)

I've been looking forward to this movie for many months, and I must say I was not disappointed. Overall, the movie is an intense experience -- from the opening crash scene to the final surprise. Listed below are a few of my favorite scenes:
1) Riddick "dancing" directly in the face of the creature to keep inside its "blindspot." Very well done, as was the whole special effect of the creatures' sonar "vision."
2) The washed-out colors during the daylight sequence -- definitely gave you the feeling of being in a glaring, sun-baked desert.
3) Of course, the great eclipse scene.
4) Riddick killing one of the creatures, and his retort "Didn't know who he was F**KING with!"
5) And of course, the white-knuckled crash-landing scene -- I was digging my heels into the floor trying to get that ship to stop!
The only two nitpicks I have are (1) the ecology of the creature -- there are far too many of those large predators to be sustainable in that barren area, and (2) the double sets of rings around the large planet -- should not have been parallel, should have been concentric. I'm sure someone out there will be happy to go on about all the "obvious" scientific shortcomings of the film, but these were the only two that occurred to me while watching it.
I saw it at a bargain matinee, with DTS on a decent-sized screen, and I think that makes a big difference. I'll be seeing it again this week (for full price) with a different set of friends... and I don't even mind.