Our first solid glimpse at Riddick has finally arrived. No hyperbole: It’s kinda rad.
I’ll go to my grave swearing that Vin Diesel was born in the wrong decade. Had Mr. Diesel been in his twenties during the 1980s he very easily could have achieved Schwarzeneggerian levels of stardom as a Hollywood action hero, but in our modern era there’s just so very few chances for a chiseled, gravel-voiced actor to win acclaim by murdering dozens of whichever vile fiends are stupid enough to cross his path.
Still, Diesel occasionally offers us a glimpse at what this alternate past may have looked like. To wit: The trailer embedded above, which serves as the debut look at the upcoming Riddick, the third entry in a sci-fi franchise that includes Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick, a couple of animated features, and two of the finest videogame adaptations to ever emerge from the generally unholy collaboration between Hollywood and the gaming biz.
Go ahead, hit play. We don’t want you to miss any of it, so we’ll wait for you.
Done? What’d you think? Rad, huh?
Obviously a trailer isn’t much to go on, but we’re happy to see that Riddick relies heavily on the general-purpose badass appeal of its titular, antihero protagonist. Both of the previous movies in the franchise were successes almost entirely due to Diesel’s menacing presence and that theme appears to return in spades for Riddick.
Further, we appreciate the world-building seemingly in place here. Everything in the trailer looks distinctly alien, yet with enough of a human touch to remain grounded and accessible to audiences hoping for a few hours of simple, cathartic violence.
Expect Riddick to hit theaters on September 16, 2013. That’s only a few months off, so you’ve got permission to amp up your anticipation starting now.
