Riddick
Universal Pictures | Release Date: September 6, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
49
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
14
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskySep 5, 2013
In an era of high-falutin’ tentpole sci-fi, there’s something to be said for a filmmaker still devoted to crafting plain old genre pleasures. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesBruce IngramSep 6, 2013
It’s nothing new for sure, but writer/director David Twohy...throws in enough entertaining touches to maintain interest — despite an overlong two-hour running time. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 6, 2013
Riddick isn't perfect but it's a good high-octane sci-fi tinged action/thriller. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Adam NaymanSep 5, 2013
The quickest and easiest way to humanize an unlikeable movie character is to give him a lovable dog, and so it goes with Riddick. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 5, 2013
It's fun! Extremely violent, cleverly managed fun, full of eviscerating aliens. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 5, 2013
There’s one man alone, stranded on a seemingly desolate distant planet with only his wits, his fists and his voice-over. That voice-over is mercifully spare, the landscape atmospherically barren and the action nice and tight. Read full review
70
VarietyScott FoundasSep 4, 2013
An improbable but very enjoyable sequel that recaptures much of the stripped-down intensity of Diesel and director David Twohy’s franchise starter "Pitch Black." Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovSep 9, 2013
While "The Chronicles of Riddick" was an overstuffed melange of CGI and unnecessary subplots, Riddick is a far more streamlined affair, and all the better for it. Read full review
67
The PlaylistDrew TaylorSep 4, 2013
Riddick, as a character, is best when he's alone, fighting against insurmountable odds, with narratives that serve his singular nastiness. Read full review
64
Film.comMatt PatchesSep 4, 2013
Riddick is a fractured skeleton of a script, with each distinct installment scratching its own itch. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithSep 30, 2013
The movie jogs along nicely without ever getting a case of the stupids; far from being a bloated “John Carter,” it’s just a pared-down yarn of survival: “Die Hard” on a planet. Read full review
63
Washington PostStephanie MerrySep 6, 2013
Riddick can be cheesy and silly, not to mention excessively violent, but it’s also fun. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonSep 6, 2013
Twohy's script contains macho dialogue so ripe it's embarrassing to hear it. Read full review
60
The DissolveTasha RobinsonSep 5, 2013
Riddick taps into a primal well of audience wish-fulfillment, but over the course of its unrelieved, monotonous length, it does its best to suck that well dry. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghSep 5, 2013
Riddick aims much lower than the stars and still doesn't quite hit its target. But when you consider a summer overstuffed with disappointing prestige pics that cost the GDP of several island nations to produce, Riddick's more modest (and less expensive) stumbling doesn't seem so bad in comparison. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichSep 5, 2013
Watching this see-in-the-dark muscleman brooding against gorgeous otherworldly vistas, all while crafting pointy homemade weapons and befriending a scene-stealing CGI canine (no joke), is a sci-fi aficionado's delight. Read full review
60
EmpireChris Hewitt (1)Sep 4, 2013
Overlong and often overcooked, this is nevertheless a relative return to form for Diesel as the fiendish Furyan. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyKeith StaskiewiczSep 4, 2013
At a time when the budgets for sci-fi films are, like the universe itself, expanding at an astronomical rate, Riddick decides to go small. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony LaneSep 16, 2013
And that's it, really: two hours of loneliness, interleaved with havoc. The dialogue has been distilled to expletives and grunts. [16 Sept. 2013, p.74]
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrSep 9, 2013
This is back-to-basics stuff, which turns out to be not such a bad idea. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 6, 2013
An alternately kick-ass and clumsy piece of sci-fi claptrap that puts its empty head down and gets the job done. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubSep 5, 2013
The result isn't a great film, but it's true to the original brutal vision.
50
Philadelphia InquirerDavid HiltbrandSep 5, 2013
Purely as an action film, Riddick is passable, if grueling. The problem is tonal. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 5, 2013
The results are by turns boring and bizarre, although Diesel still has some presence. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterJustin LoweSep 4, 2013
Playing it safe with a script that offers Riddick up as a lone avenging hero, Twohy passes on the opportunity to effectively shade the character’s distinctive dimensionality. Read full review
40
Total Film Kevin HarleySep 4, 2013
Too stodgy for B-movie suspense, too silly to shock, too sexist to stomach, Diesel’s return misfires. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonSep 4, 2013
The aliens are unscary and easily despatched, Vin’s too silent to be interesting, and the other characters – a gang of bounty hunters on Riddick’s trail – are either dull or offensive. Read full review
38
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreSep 4, 2013
Like Vin Diesel, it has bulk, lumbering clumsily along as it repeats Diesel’s greatest hits — the ones that don’t require him to drive a fast and furious car. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriSep 5, 2013
As a result, we get relatively little insight into the other characters as they react to Riddick. Without an unknown force to spark our own imaginations, the result is mostly dead air. Read full review
30
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonSep 4, 2013
The only reason to root for Riddick is that his name is on the ticket stub. But he's so dull and the hunters so weird that we're literally cheering for the movie to kill off its personality, one throat slash at a time. Read full review
25
USA TodayClaudia PuigSep 5, 2013
Move along, there's nothing to see and no one to root for in this murky franchise reboot. Read full review
25
Portland OregonianStephen WhittySep 5, 2013
It's the film, though, that remains handcuffed. The early part of the story -- with Riddick stranded on an unfriendly planet -- is taut enough, but hampered by flagrantly unreal effects and Diesel's punch-drunk narration. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezSep 5, 2013
The entire movie bears the whiff of a vanity project — a modestly budgeted bone Universal Pictures threw at Diesel so he would keep starring in Fast and Furious pictures. Those movies are bank; Riddick is rank. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineNick SchagerSep 4, 2013
For a film about a killing machine who can see at night, it's fittingly ironic that the film itself is, both narratively and visually, a dark, muddled mess. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierSep 5, 2013
The story feels like quicksand. Riddick, which couldn’t even qualify for proper summer movie placement, moves like Martian molasses and can’t present an action scene to save its life. You’ll wish you had Uncle Martin’s ability to speed people — not to mention awful movies — up. Read full review
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