RIDDICK

year: 2013 cast: Vin Diesel, Jordi Mollà, Matt Nable, Katee Sackhoff, Dave Bautista rating: ***1/2

Forget all the backstory and let's start fresh… Vin Diesel’s RIDDICK has been abandoned on a desert planet where the only creatures are dingo-like, zebra stripped man-eaters on land, while in pools of water live some kind of poisonous tentacle beast that makes the hell hounds seem like butterflies. For Riddick this is only a problem till he figures out how to get past the water-creatures after giving himself, and a tamed land animal he raised from a pup, immunization to survive. And survival is what RIDDICK: RULE THE DARK is all about.

If you’ve seen FIRST BLOOD, where Green Beret Vietnam vet John Rambo is hunted by lawmen way out of their league, you’ll remember the line: “We’re not hunting him, he’s hunting us.” That’s exactly what happens when two groups land on the planet after a contrived distress signal – one a motley crew led by a gruff Spanish bounty hunter; the other an official uniformed team including a stalwart captain and a sexy blond woman tougher than nails.

The suspenseful second act, after Riddick learns to survive on a planet literally out to devour him, could be called THE LEGEND OF RIDDICK as we hardly see him at all. He’s nervously discussed by the converged party, who wants his head for money, and in the Rambo fashion they’re picked off one-by-one… especially at night when Riddick has the most power. Despite some Cable-TV special effects and corny muscle-bound dialogue, these are the best scenes: our ghostly hero, appearing in silhouette, wreaks havoc on the same people he’d warned from the onset.

But the energetic cat and mouse game morphs into an all-out creature feature as, during a thunderstorm, the formidable water beasts inhabit the entire planet. Eventually our anti-hero has to reluctantly band together with those determined to kill him... here's where most of the action occurs. It’s too bad the characters, fleshed out during Riddick’s absence, become much-too-easy victims of a menace so large in number you’ll wish it never rained in the first… or rather… the last place. From here a movie that took its time in the build-up races desperately for a conclusion.