Dear Augusto,

You've seen it before. You worked on Godfather III and Hannibal, two other movies that had to work hard to try to deal with the expectations of their predecessors. People get all nervous and wonder if they are doing the right thing. Unlike those other two examples, though, the second outing of the badass anti-hero was considered a high point. For Richard B. Riddick, the second movie was considered a misstep for both the director and the main character. This movie is meant to be a return to form. And the result is nice. It's not great, and it's not terrible. Riddick has its heart in the right place and leather everywhere else. Especially the pants.

That's why I thought your work was interesting here. When we meet our hero again, he is in the midst of a character- and wardrobe-malfunction. It picks up where Chronicles of Riddick left off, where he has beaten the Necromongers (death sellers? What's their customer base? Is that why they seem so unhappy?) and become their leader. And now things have gone wrong. He is alone on a hostile planet, seems to have twisted his ankle, and is probably dying in his hunky metal armor. How did this happen?

The flashback shows us a Tigger without his bounce. Riddick is a mopey and sullen necro-leader, (even during orgies, poor muffin) and he wonders what to do next. The costuming reflects this well, with agile and stealthy Riddick constrained by metal pants. He realizes his error and gets back to his strengths - stealthy killing, being tough, and not talking much. This also means taking off his rigid pants and making new ones out of things that he has killed - some alien leather that I am sure was your handiwork. It works. I believed the transformation.

Next, he makes a plan to get off the planet by leveraging his wanted status and dislike of mercenaries. We get to see Riddick at his best: alone and outnumbered against very bad people and monsters. And it works, for the most part. He does all the cool Riddick things, trying to make honest deals with people, all of whom seem to be much more crooked than he's supposed to be. He sees in the dark. He sneaks. He's misunderstood. He punches! He gets captured!

The story doesn't all make sense, and the death and betrayal gets too predictable. Why doesn't Riddick ever learn? But it's good fun if you enjoyed the others. I could warn you about some clunky writing, too much CGI and some ugly choices right out of 80s action movie, but somehow I don't think that would bother you - being the leather pants guy, and all.

P.S. Tell Katee Sackhoff I would have written to her, but I think she knows how I feel already, and that I hope she'll give me an answer when she's ready.