All 3 Riddick Movies, Ranked From Worst To Best

The history of Hollywood is littered with planned sequels that were completely abandoned. Follow-ups that were supposed to pay off cryptic credit scene teases or adapt various sequels to a film's source material, but never got realized, are often etched into legendary status. Then there are the rarer movies that are surprising in how many sequels they've inspired. These titles aren't necessarily dismal in quality. It's just that nobody could have imagined while watching the original installments that these films would have subsequently inspired decades of further storytelling.

2000's "Pitch Black," which featured the debut of Vin Diesel's Richard B. Riddick, is a prime example of such a movie. "Pitch Black" broke even at the worldwide box office, but it wasn't necessarily a game-changing title when it first came out. However, it inspired two further sequels, "The Chronicles of Riddick" and "Riddick," that took the "Pitch Black" mythology in unexpectedly dense and bizarre directions. Nothing in the original sci-fi horror trappings of "Pitch Black" signaled that this was the start of an expansive mythology spanning multiple features.

Ranking all three of these Riddick-starring movies from worst to best helps illustrate the artistic highs and lows attached to keeping this saga going. Riddick has been far from a foolproof leading man, but this ranking does reaffirm that there have been creative benefits to ensuring "Pitch Black" wasn't a one-off. Let's examine the peaks and valleys of this strange and unexpected saga.

Vin Diesel put everything on the line for "Riddick," putting a lot of his own cash into the movie simply because he believed in the titular character and this particular installment so much. Diesel has claimed that he doesn't believe in box office success and putting this much moolah into essentially an independent film (even a "Riddick" sequel) suggests that could actually be true. But while all this chutzpah extended the entire "Riddick" timeline, it wasn't enough to help the movie reach its fullest potential. Diesel, director David Twohy, and the rest of the creative team settled for antics that would be mighty familiar to anyone who'd seen "Pitch Black."

Even if the narrative structure was frustratingly derivative, "Riddick" did have some smart creative choices up its sleeve. That included drastically shrinking down the scope of this universe from 2004's "The Chronicles of Riddick," as well having Diesel's Riddick going toe-to-toe with talented actors like Bokeem Woodbine and Dave Bautista. There's also some striking images littered throughout the runtime, while committing to a first act that isn't heavily reliant on dialogue was commendable. 

Unfortunately, "Riddick" doesn't have many surprises up its sleeve, which makes the 119-minute runtime drag. What should be a sleek, bite-sized descent into B-movie thrills instead lurches around for too much of its length. Still, there's far worse things Vin Diesel could have gambled his financial stability on than "Riddick," like working on "The Last Witch Hunter 2."

The grimy R-rated sci-fi horror film "Pitch Black" inspiring a sequel wouldn't have been a surprising development, but spawning a big PG-13 fantasy/action tentpole like "The Chronicles of Riddick," however, was downright bamboozling. For one thing, the film scored a softer PG-13 rating, presumably to make the massive budget (which was needed to realize Diesel's "Dungeons and Dragons"-inspired vision for the movie) feasible. Sandwiched in between two R-rated horror films (making "Chronicles" one of those PG-13 movies that was followed by an R-rated sequel), "The Chronicles of Riddick" is the most high-profile yet strangest entry in the entire franchise. 

The modern reputation of "The Chronicles of Riddick" has improved considerably from the outright savage reviews that greeted its 2004 debut. With decades of hindsight, various Letterboxd reviewers now look back with fondness on "The Chronicles of Riddick" sincerely attempting to fuse early-2000s "edgy" aesthetics with vintage 20th century fantasy storytelling. The inexplicable sight of commendable actors like Judi Dench and Thandiwe Newton wallowing in this nerdy cornucopia has also generated endearing retrospectives about "The Chronicles of Riddick." 

Granted, that hasn't erased widespread criticism of the movie's various grave shortcomings, particularly when it comes to its terrible dialogue. Still, especially in summer 2004, there wasn't anything quite like "The Chronicles of Riddick," for better or worse. Nobody could have imagined a "Pitch Black" sequel would remotely look like this.

At the dawn of the 21st century, a small-time actor-director named Vin Diesel headlined the movie "Pitch Black," playing the role of Richard B. Riddick. Given that Diesel had started out in more grounded live-action works like "Strays" and "Saving Private Ryan," anchoring a sci-fi horror film was a bold move. Going down this route, though, produced not only one of Vin Diesel's best movies, but elevated "Pitch Black" overall.

Many reviews looking back on "Pitch Black" today commend the visual chops that director David Twohy brought to something so low-budget and conceptually disposable. Others might have phoned in this kind of movie, but Twohy didn't, much to its enduring benefit. The grisly alien mayhem has also earned acclaim, but what's really stood out in these retrospective assessments is Vin Diesel. His debut turn as Riddick has remained consistently praised and heralded as the artistic antithesis of his phoned-in work in later action titles like "Bloodshot."

The chops that put Diesel on the radar of film festival attendees in the late '90s were put to solid use in "Pitch Black," a film that's stuck around in people's mind as a fine example of a motion picture going above and beyond expectations. That feat was apparently enough to inspire a franchise that's supposed to eventually continue with "Riddick: Furya."