Riddick: 7 Crimes Against Cinema It Commits

4. A Terrible Villain

Riddick Ruthless, crude bounty hunter Santana has to be just that for the narrative to work; he is a villain who we want to see Riddick murder, and by virtue of his creepy, rapey, angry demeanour, actor Jordi Molla doesn't exactly have to try hard. However, it's not really an impressive performance, more one that survives on the strength of its intentional and unintentional hilarity, by way of the ridiculous one-liners he is forced to shout, and Molla's often unconvincing delivery (listening to him try to pronounce the word "frequency" is nothing short of painful). He's more an irritation than anything else, and short of one tripwire-tense sequence in which he attempts to disarm a bomb-lock planted on a locker, he doesn't get a lot of narrative meat to play around with. That said, when he meets his extremely grisly end - having his face graphically split in two - it is a crowd-pleasing moment for sure.
Contributor
Contributor

Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.