6. Vin Diesel's Performance
It's never a good sign when a movie's script asks Vin Diesel to spend the first act narrating it heavily. Though Diesel has given one truly great performance in his career - in Sidney Lumet's Find Me Guilty - it's generally acknowledged that he's best cast as the silent but deadly type, as suits Riddick's usual
modus operandi quite nicely. However, given that the opening sections feature
only Vin Diesel, the only other option is silence, and though that often seems preferable here, Diesel is forced to chew through several pages of unconvincing, often corny dialogue, in order to finally get the plot moving. In addition to that, Diesel, perhaps aptly, comes across as incredibly tired throughout, fielding out the one-liners without much enthusiasm. Given the paycut he had to take to be in the movie, perhaps it's simply a case of his mind being on more prosperous projects...