So I forgot that the first Riddick movie was actually called Pitch Black. I saw the film Riddick listed on HBO and decided to watch it. While watching, I realized that it didn’t seem familiar and looked up how many other Riddick films there were. Turns out there are two or three more that happened before this one.

Since I hadn’t seen the other films, I wasn’t sure why Riddick is being hunted as some sort of criminal. They showed a little preview at the beginning, and from that I guessed that the people in power probably framed him and labeled him a criminal. But I’m not certain since I haven’t seen the other movies.

Despite not having the background from the other films, and already being fairly deep into this one, I was still able to watch and enjoy it. You don’t really need to know the whole history to follow this movie, although it probably helps for better understanding and context.

At the end, it sounds like they were setting up another film in the franchise, but since this came out in 2013, I’m not sure if that’s going to happen. A quick search shows that Diesel is looking to release another Riddick film, Furya, but I’ll believe it when I actually see it. It’s possible, but I’m not sure how likely it is we’ll get another one.

The plot is that Riddick is stuck on an alien planet with some crazy monsters and is trying to find his way home. He finds a base and triggers an alarm that scans him, which feels intentional so they can come searching for him. From there, the film goes exactly how you’d expect from a modern action movie. He’s sneaky, takes out everyone, and it keeps going.

One frustrating part is that they kill his dog in the movie. You pretty much expect it once they show him bonding with the dog, but it still was disappointing. Thankfully, the person who did it definitely gets what they deserve, which was satisfying. Though I would have preferred to see that happen in a more drawn out way.

It’s an older movie and not amazing by any stretch, but it’s fairly entertaining and I enjoyed it.