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THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK UNRATED DVD REVIEW
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Part I (No Spoilers) |
Part II (Spoilers) |
Part III.1 (Spoilers)
Part III.2 (Spoilers) |
Part III.3 (Spoilers) |
Part IV (No Spoilers)
IV. CONCLUSION (No Spoilers)
The unrated new version of the movie is well worth the purchase price. No only does it add a fair bit of excitement and fun, it also does a lot of fixing. It fixes transitions, fixes motivations, fixes the fiction, and fixes characters. It’s also pleasing to see the material drift away from it’s theatrical PG-13, which perhaps wasn’t the best idea when making a movie about a knife-wielding killer.
So, the extras. Sure, this is no Aliens Quadrilogy, but rather a single-disk release trying to appeal to everyone; the Chronicles fan, the movie-making fan, and the casual fan. As a result, nothing really goes above and beyond. Having said that, though, you can bet your ass I’m happy to have a commentary track and deleted scenes, rather than just the movie and an EPK. It’s worth giving some points too for the material that discusses the fictional setting and characters, since most casual viewers (undoubtedly Universal’s target demographic) would probably be more interested in pretty actors talking.
The lack of Vin Diesel’s participation is mystifying and disappointing, honestly. While my personal theory is that Universal is going to do another release somewhere down the road with more movie-related extras and more stuff with Vin, I suppose it’s worth considering that this might be all we ever see. Maybe it costs too much for his involvement, and the studio is already too far in the red on THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK. Maybe he was too busy. Maybe too disappointed. It’s really too bad if it’s any of the latter because, despite the box office performance of this particular movie, there's no doubt that the character of Riddick has plenty of appeal.
A lot of work was put into this DVD, all the way from the animated menus to what was probably a considerable amount of effort editing the movie itself. Those of you that actually read all 8000 words of this review may have noticed what appear to be a lot of criticisms, and sure things aren’t perfect here, but considering the movie’s public reception I think the filmmakers and Universal went out of their way to put out a disk that fans can really enjoy.
Part I (No Spoilers) |
Part II (Spoilers) |
Part III.1 (Spoilers)
Part III.2 (Spoilers) |
Part III.3 (Spoilers) |
Part IV (No Spoilers)
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