Pretty Good Sci-Fi Film

Rating: 9/10 (26 May 2002)

This is a pretty good sci-fi film, it is far from great, but it's pretty good in it's own right.
SPOILER ALERT!
Maybe it's just me, but I found it really hard to give any kind of care what happened to Riddick (Vin Diesel). I guess the movie is all about the changes his character goes though, but I didn't really get what suddenly made him change his mind and decide to go back and rescue the little girl and the religious guy. So Carolyn admitted that she was willing to die for them...Ok...so why does Riddick think that's a good enough reason to help her?
Also, I HATED that Carolyn (Radha Mitchell) got killed at the end of the film. I never really understand why a writer works so hard to make sure a character lives till the end of film, just to get killed off. Of course sometimes this is very appropriate, but I didn't find this to be one of those times. Why was it so important to kill off that character? So that Riddick could see that she was willing to die for him...and DID!? I guess that makes sense, but that still kind of sucks.
As for the creatures themselves...EXCELLENT! I loved the design of the animals, I loved the idea that they can only come out when there is no light, I loved that light actually hurt them, I loved the way their vision looked, I loved everything about them! Some of the CG work was a little cartoony, but I'm not going to let that ruin anything for me.
All in all, I thought it was good movie, but nothing absolutely spectacular. Although, I did think the story was VERY cool, and pretty well told. If you're a die-hard sci-fi fan like myself, then you're probably going to want to see this, but if you're not so much into sci-fi, then don't go out of your way to see it, but it may still be worth your time. Anyhow, I hope you like the film and thanks for reading,
-Chris