The Best of it's kind since Aliens.

Rating: Null/10 (15 October 2001)

What amazes me about this movie is that none of it's creators have much of a filmography. The Director has not done much that was great, G.I. Jane makes a statement about sexes obviously, Womens rights etc, and Waterworld is just one of a mob of Costner glorifiers. The writers are the ones you would least expect to be credited with this, they are veterans of trash like 'It Came From Outer Space', 'Nightmare On Elm Street 376', sorry it was the fourth that they catered for and 'The Fly 2'.
The premise fits well with thier rep but the characters and the style are way above. Riddick is an elastic and artificially nocturnal crim, the other guy is a back staving mercenary and good old Caroline is a humane ships captain. Them and a few others are caught on a planet and must get a ship space-worthy as time and personnel numbers dwindle. Yeah that's been done, so has pretty much every avenue movies can take nowadays, but the relationships are what make this one soar. Riddick steals the show, he is just too cool for the others to have a hope. A kind of 'survival of the fittest' logic makes him tick but without even realising it her humanity starts to rub off on him. A by appearance respectable mercenary needs to get him off the planet alive to collect a bounty but Riddick is more than just formidable by appearance, he also has a keen, self-dependant and crafty mind at work, how long can the man who would cross him last.

Then to the Aliens setup. When getting thier bearings the team stumbles upon a couple of undesirable chamelion-like predators beneath the surface, surveying the remains of the previous tenants they start to realise what they are dealing with, the first bomshell comes when they realise that the planet is about to line up for an eclipse that could last from hours to weeks, the problem is that these predators one weakness is light and they are about to re-enter the hunting ground, the team could well be sliced in less time than the minimum duration of the eclipse. Theres plenty of thrillers out nowadays that you can dismiss on appearance, this isn't one. Vin Diesel is on the short road to stardom, this movie is why. You'll be happy to know all you fans that the director and Diesel are getting together for a follow up, dealing mainly with Riddick. I am astounded at the 6.6 rating this movie is on, I sense opinion changed after 'The Fast And The Furious' hit screens, lets work on flipping that.
10/10