Action hero Diesel searches for his homeworld

Riddick (15)
Running time119 minutes
Rating:***
As in his two previous cinema outings as Riddick, Vin Diesel plays a man that you definitely would not want to meet in a dark alley – or indeed anywhere at all, given that he is a character with an unnatural skill in dispatching people to the next world.
Riddick is the third film in a series written and directed by David Twohy (we are discounting an animated story plus a couple of computer game appearances). The man has some credentials, having directed that Christmas film favourite, Waterworld, with Kevin Costner and his gills, but this does not excuse what looks like a return to the first film in a sequence and hoping no-one will notice.
First time round, in Pitch Black (an excellent film), Riddick was a convict stranded on a planet where, during month-long eclipses, biting creatures come out and eat anything in sight.
He survives because of his military skills, ruthless nature, and the ability to see in the dark. In film 2 (Chronicles of Riddick), he goes back to the planet of the people who tried to imprison him, kills them all, and takes over as ruler.
However, by film 3 (Riddick) he’s bored with all that and starts looking for his long-lost home world. In doing so, he becomes marooned on a planet where, co-incidentally, there are masses of nasty biting things that will eat anything in sight.
This time, the creatures come out in the rain, not the dark. He is hunted by mercenaries attracted by the large bounty on his head, all under the control of one Santana (no relation to the excellent 1970s group), who promises to put Riddick’s head in a box.
The usual things happen – chasing, stabbing, cutting off of bits of body you’d rather keep – with Riddick this time helped by his own canine helper on the planet.
It’s all good fun and I love the settings which have a real 1950s sci-fi feel about them. Riddick’s dialogue, given Vin Diesel’s seeming preference for grunts, is limited and may be lower than Schwarzenegger’s total of 127 words in Terminator, but that doesn’t really matter.
Unfortunately, it was spoilt for me by feeling a touch formulaic. You wonder about missed opportunities, such getting Riddick to actually find his home world, discover that he’s not alone and in the dark, facing creatures that only live in the daylight and so on…
You get the picture.
Nonetheless, Riddick will provide decent entertainment for those who like non-comic book action heroes (not many around these days) and should do well at the box office.
Look out for film 4.