Enjoyable  but visually a mixed bag and lacking in originality

Rating: Null/10 (30 September 2003)

When something goes wrong in a deep space crossing, a passenger ship crashes on a desolate planet losing most of it's load along the way. Once on the surface they discover signs of past human life and soon discover that the planet is populated by dangerous creatures. They discover that the creatures come out at night to feed just as a solar eclipse begins. The crew's only hope of survival is one of the passengers  a dangerous murderer with the ability to see in the dark.
This film has the reputation as being Vin Diesel's breakthrough movie and I therefore expected it to be pretty good. The plot is quite clever if you say the whole `seeing in the dark' thing, but really this is more of a plot device than a plot  the actual plot will not surprise anyone who's seen any alien movies before. The cast are eaten one by one  you don't have to look at your watch to see if the film is nearly over, just count the number of characters left onscreen! There are some exciting moments in the second half and the film manages to be enjoyable without being that good.
I understood that Riddick can see in the dark, but didn't get why (at the start) he was walking round in daylight and the characters seemed unable to see him. His being able to see in the dark is also a bit of a leap and all smacks of lazy writing if you ask me  it would have been better to not have this twist rather than making it feel like it was forced. The actual aliens themselves are not well designed  when half seen they are fast and exciting, however seen in more detail they are quite basic or, as my friend said, look like Big Bird's cousin.
The film is really over-edited which in one way works but in others doesn't. The thing I liked was the use of washed out film stocks to show different times of day and to give a different feel to every part of the film. However the constant jump cuts etc just got annoying and suggested a director who lacks confidence and has to resort to visual excess to compensate for his lack of faith in the film to carry itself.
The cast are all pretty awful if you ask me. Diesel does have a good screen presence, even if he is lacking in charisma (in my opinion). He is just like a young muscle man actor but does quite well here I suppose. At least, he does in comparison to the support cast who are all clichés who await their death scenes with impatient hamming and cardboard delivery.
Overall this is an average film as it lacks any new ideas (other than the central one) and feels like a retread of other films. Visually bits of it are impressive but then other bits just are over the top, edited to within an inch of it's life for no benefit. I enjoyed it but really failed to see what all the fuss had been about in the first place.