After the ambitious but commercially disappointing space opera of The Chronicles of Riddick , director David Twohy and star Vin Diesel made a conscious decision to return to the franchise’s roots. The result, Riddick , is a lean, mean, and brutally effective survival thriller that strips the character down to his raw essentials: a lone predator stranded on a deadly planet, fighting for his life against monsters, mercenaries, and the elements.

The film is not without flaws. The middle section, where Riddick plays cat-and-mouse with the mercenaries, can feel slightly repetitive. Some of the dialogue (particularly from Santana) crosses the line from “vicious” into “cartoonishly crude.” Additionally, while Katee Sackhoff is excellent as Dahl, the script briefly flirts with a tired implication about her sexuality that feels dated and unnecessary.

It’s not high art. It’s a movie about a man who uses a knife to cut off his own crushed leg brace, tames a hyena-dog, and then proceeds to throw a bounty hunter through his own windshield. And for what it is, it’s damn good fun.