Trailer Trashin’: Vin Diesel Returns to Sci-Fi with Riddick

First off, sorry that this week’s column is getting to you so late, dear readers. I’ve been really busy lately, and this got away from me. But never let it be said that I will make you go a week without a new Trailer Trashin’ column. This time, I’m taking a quick look at the teaser trailer for the upcoming sci-fi action film Riddick.

Premise: Betrayed by his own kind and left for dead on a desolate planet, Riddick (Vin Diesel) fights for survival against alien predators and becomes more powerful and dangerous than ever before. Soon, bounty hunters from throughout the galaxy descend on Riddick, only to find themselves pawn in his great scheme for revenge. With his enemies right where he wants them, Riddick unleashes a vicious attack of vengeance before returning to his home planet of Furya to save it from destruction.

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My take: It’s once again time for me to admit to a hole in my movie-watching history. I have never seen Pitch Black (2000) nor its sequel The Chronicles of Riddick (2004). As such, I’ve observed the efforts over the last several years of writer/director David Twohy and star Vin Diesel to get a third Riddick film off the ground as an outsider. But that third film, previously known by the awful title The Chronicles of Riddick: Dead Man Stalking, and now known simply as Riddick, is on its way for release later this year. The first teaser trailer has arrived, and it’s actually managed to get me interested in finally hopping aboard this particular franchise’s bandwagon.

As far as the cast goes, obviously the only character we see in this teaser is Vin Diesel as Riddick. Even though I haven’t seen either of the previous films, he does seem like a pretty cool character, and given how long Diesel has been trying to make this third film happen, it’s clear that he’s passionate about the role. In terms of the rest of the cast, Karl Urban is reprising his role of Lord Vaako from The Chronicles of Riddick, and he’ll be joined by Katee Sackhoff, Bokeem Woodbine, and Dave Batista among others.

At only twenty-two seconds long there’s not all that much to talk about. The desolate planet where this takes place looks fittingly barren. And I really like the brief glimpses alien creatures, which basically look like pterosaurs spawned in the pits of hell itself. Above all, I’m glad that going back to a smaller-scaled movie has allowed the filmmakers to go for an R rating like the original Pitch Black, and to presumably make things as dark and violent as they want.

When it was announced that a third Riddick movie was going to happen, I figured it would come and go without me taking much notice. But this teaser trailer has really got me a lot more interested than I had expected. This has finally given me the impetus I need to at least finally check out Pitch Black, and if I like that, I’ll go from there. When September rolls around, I might well be checking out Riddick at my local theater.

ANTICIPATION: My curiosity is definitely piqued, and I might actually see it.

Release Date: September 6^th, 2013

Starring: Vin Diesel, Karl Urban, Katee Sackhoff, Jordi Mollà, Bokeem Woodbine, Dave Batista, and Nolan Gerard Funk
Director: David Twohy
Writer: David Twohy, based on characters created by Jim Wheat and Ken Wheat