Riddick Tangles With A Nasty Beast In This First Clip

By Brent McKnight | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

From what I can tell, the entire point of Riddick seems to be to get the franchise, and the titular protagonist, back to its ass kicking roots. Maybe there are other motives lurking around elsewhere, hidden in the shadows, but what most us are truly interested in is watching Vin Diesel’s beefy space badass be exactly that. I’m sure there are wonderful performances, a nuanced story, and some moments destined to be Oscar clips, but what we really want to see, what’s going to put all of our butts in those movie theater seats for the midnight IMAX screenings, is action, pure and simple. That’s all most of us are looking for, and the first clip, newly released, gives us plenty of that.

The action in Riddick promises to take two distinct forms. First, he’s going to have to fight human opponents, in the guise of the crews of bounty hunters that dog him across the galaxy—it’s tough being in such high demand. This side is comprised of pretty standard stuff like escaping from chains and kicking machetes through Jordi Molla’s skull, you know, the usual things that occur in our day to day lives. The other part is a little different. The other side involves him battling giant monsters, which is exactly what this clip delivers. We’ve seen bits and pieces, like when Riddick grabs that Pterodactyl looking thing by the throat, but this video provides a much clearer view of what these creature-fighting antics will entail.

This video just goes to show that even if you’re a hideous, computer generated, space beast, you shouldn’t mess with Riddick. You especially don’t want to sneak up on the man or try to ambush him. That’s insulting enough to most of us, but for someone of his stature, them’s fightin’ words. He’ll cut you; he’ll cut you deep. But he’s not all bad. Riddick has a cuddly, sensitive side. Playing that up took any bite out of the second film in the series, The Chronicles of Riddick, and while it is pushed to the side in the follow up, it isn’t entirely absent these days. His heart of gold is readily apparent because he saves a space puppy. You can’t be completely beyond redemption if you keep a puppy from being eaten, even a weird one that may grow into a monster of in its own right.

Whether batting man or beast, odds are pretty strong that Riddick is going spend most of his latest cinematic adventure locked in mortal combat with some life form that want to do him harm. And that sounds like a damn fine time to me. Riddick opens September 6, and co-stars Karl Urban, Katee Sackhoff, Bokeem Woodbine, and Dave Bautista.