True to itself, this film does indeed chronicle Riddick and all of the fantastic adventures he has.

All the pre-release information we got was that this would be a prequel to Pitch Black, turns out its just an ordinary postquel. We figure this out about ten minutes in, when Vin Diesel starts talking about events in the earlier film. Later, he meets up with the girl he befriended in Pitch Black, who is now grown up, confirming our earlier suspicions.

The special effects are reasonably impressive. The fighting is reasonably interesting. I'd be happier if the hot-chick sort-of-love-interest didn't look, for most of the movie, so much like Michael Jackson. Or if the dialogue wasn't quite so stupid. It sure has grandiose goals, though. It seems to be trying to be so enormous in scope as to rival Dune for most bombastic creation scenario in a science fiction work ever. Although science fiction doesn't really apply. Its more like fantasy in space. For example, there is no possible situation in which a planet with a breathable atmosphere would have such extreme temperature opposites on the sunny and dark sides.

The film does answer a question which I have been asking myself since The Fast and the Furious: What does Vin Diesel's soul look like? Turns out it looks a lot like him, only grey and sort of transparent.