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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)
I. INTRO AND SPECIFICS (No spoilers)
REVIEW INTRODUCTION
This isn't going to be a review, exactly. Anyone visiting this site already knows the story to THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK and very likely already knows they want to buy the DVD when it hits November 16th. After reading my thoughts on the Unrated Version you'll probably decide to get this one instead of the PG13 theatrical cut if you weren't already going to, but otherwise... Rather than a review, call this a detailed look at every nook and cranny of the disk with a nerd-level of granularity.
I'm not going to get into the tech end of the visuals and audio. It looks great on my computer, my crappy TV and Xbox, and my big digital Hitachi with Monster cables and progressive scan player, so there's no point in talking mosquito blocking and edge enhancement and all that other stuff that I wouldn't be able to pick out even if this transfer had any of those things. It probably doesn't, I dunno. If it does, what are you going to do; buy the VHS version instead?
Notice that I've broken this article into four parts. The thought was that people wouldn't want spoilers about what the Director's Cut changes or what exactly comes with the extras, but might still want some idea of how this disk stacks up. These people should stick to Parts I and IV.
This article is based on a retail version of the DVD sent by Universal, not a pirated copy.
DVD SPECIFICS
Director's Cut of the movie
This isn't just a version of TCOR with some scenes added back in. While there are many examples of that, there is so much more. Several large sections of the movie have been reworked completely, with new and rearranged footage and new sound and dialogue. In addition, some parts of the movie have had smaller changes, either with scenes cut, dialogue changed, or even just small lines of dialogue cut. It's a very different beast from what you saw in theaters.
Introduction by David Twohy
Twohy does a brief intro before the movie begins, explaining that this is a Director's Cut and that the viewer may notice some small jumps in the film where the actual negative was cut to make the changes.
Commentary with Twohy, Karl Urban, and Alexa Davolos.
Pretty much what it sounds like... Twohy, Urban, and Davolos discuss the various elements that went into making the movie.
Riddick Insider Facts on Demand
As the movie plays out, text boxes pop up along the bottom of the screen to give background story information, discuss characters, or talk about behind-the-scenes stuff. Thankfully you can run these at the same time as the commentary, although there are a few spots where doing this is confusing when the audio commentary blocks out something from the actual movie you need to hear for the text commentary to make sense.
Deleted Scenes
Three scenes that never made it into either version of the movie. These scenes feature various temporary or unfinished elements and effects, and come with a director's commentary track that can be turned on and off. The scenes are "Aereon and Imam on Helion", "Original Planet UV 6", and "Toombs' Demise".
Riddick's Worlds
This section contains two types of content: first is a short documentary with Vin Diesel showing off and discussing the various sets of the movie. The second are a group of eight 360 degree views of the sets where you can pan left or right with your mouse. These latter are the same as on the movie's website.
Virtual Guide to The Chronicles of Riddick
A collection of ten video entries, all narrarated by the major cast members, that flash between concept art, animated digital preproduction work, and film footage to discuss various backstory elements from the movie and franchise. Several entries are narrarated by two different characters in order to provide different perspectives.
Toombs' Chase Log
A computer-ish interface loads with several areas of the screen that change as Toombs narrarates 25 entries relating to his activities for several months prior to tracking Riddick to Planet 6 in the UV System. The different screen areas show low-fidelity animated images, such as the view from Toombs' spaceship that roughly matches the scene he's talking about, a static-y video of Toombs talking that doesn't synch up with the words, etc. Very similar in appearance to the Hunt for Riddick game on the official website.
Visual Effects Revealed
A straight-forward and pretty general documentary that tries to cover a lot of ground in a short time, interlacing crew interviews with film footage and behind-the-scenes material to discuss some of the big effects sequences.
Xbox game demo
Despite what the box and marketing says, this is not the very cinematic first level of ESCAPE FROM BUTCHER BAY but rather one of the later levels previously released as a demo in OXM magazine. You don't get to use the eyeshine, but they do have guns and a shiv (screwdriver!) so you can try some brutal stealth stabbing action.
DVD Rom
Well, there's an entry for this in the menus but for the life of me I can't get anything to actually happen. Disappointing, as I was hoping for concept art or a script or something.
Easter Egg
No spoilers I said! Read Part II.
Menus
All animated goodness, with the first menu allowing you to choose between 'Convert' or 'Fight', the former leading to a set of Quasi-Dead themed menus and the latter a set based on the swingblade shivs steaming on the surface of Crematoria.
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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