15 Laziest Movie Sequels Of All Time

14. Riddick (2013)

Universal Pictures

After the bloated, misjudged Chronicles of Riddick failed to convert the franchise from its B-movie origins to a $100m space opera, director David Twohy and star/producer Vin Diesel decided to strip the character back to its roots. They were successful in that aspect, but surely they must have realised that they stripped it back so far they essentially just remade Pitch Black. If you're a fan of the franchise, then Riddick marked a welcome return to form after a nine-year absence from screens.

The first act was promising, as it featured the character alone on a seemingly-deserted planet with only green-sceen and CGI critters for company. From there, things get a little too familiar as two rival groups of mercenaries arrive to capture him. If you swap out the mercs for Pitch Black's spaceship passengers, things are exactly the same; the character hides in the shadows, freaking people out an generally being a nuisance to those around him. These scenes are effective, we've just seen them before.

The final act of the movie is unashamedly derivative of the original as Riddick joins forces with the people attempting to capture him in a nighttime face-off against a bunch of aliens, with any survivors looking to hitch a ride off the planet. The budget may be higher than Pitch Black and the effects slightly more convincing, but with almost a decade to work on the story you would think that Twohy and Diesel could come up with something that wasn't so blatantly similar to their first collaboration.

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