After the overblown and overlong 'The Chronicles of Riddick,' it's something of a relief to see Vin Diesel's tough, sci-fi antihero return to his roots with 'Riddick.' The trailers have already sold a smaller, bloodier, more 'Pitch Black'-esque story and the newly released first clip from the film emphasize the most important part of the whole film: Diesel going mano-a-mano with a bunch of snarling extraterrestrial beasties.

The clip is simple enough to follow despite the total lack of context. Riddick finds himself ambushed by a large and not very friendly alien beast that wants to have the ill-tempered mercenary for a meal. Naturally, Riddick's survival skills kick in and he evades the assault in dramatic slow motion, rescuing a dog in the process (because he has a heart under all the muscle and hate, you see).

We're very curious to see how 'Riddick' turns out, especially since the character's previous outing was such a massive swing and miss. Director David Twohy has always been at his best when working on smaller scale thrillers and the lower budget allows him to chase a R-rating (which the red band trailer suggests he has more-than-earned). Although it's a goofy, bloody action movie on the surface, this is something of a passion project for the filmmaker and star, so it'll be interesting to see how much of their enthusiasm makes it into the final film.

'Riddick' hits theaters on September 6, 2013.