5. Narrative Padding
Riddick runs in at 118 minutes, and you feel almost every minute of it. The film clearly has only enough material for around 90, but the distended opening portion, which has Riddick getting the lay of the land, resting up, befriending a dog-like creature and battling natural predators, drags on for far too long, while a flashback sequence is also thrown in there for good measure. What should have collectively lasted no longer than 10-15 minutes max ends up taking up an entire act of the movie, by which time I had already resolutely lost interest in what was going on. Such a minimalist approach was surprising for sure - that it reminded me of There Will Be Blood's opening portion only compounds the weirdness - but in a film that desperately needs to get to the point and deliver on its action-based promises, it feels stuck in first gear for so long.