The Chronicles Of Riddick: Unrated Director's Cut HD DVD Review

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Title: The Chronicles Of Riddick: Unrated Director’s Cut

Region: One

Genre: Sci-Fi Action

Stars: Vin Diesel, Colm Feore, Thandie Newton, Judi Dench, Karl Urban, Alexa Davalos, Linus Roache, Yorick van Wageningen, and Nick Chinlund

Writer: David Twohy

Based On Characters By: Jim Wheat and Ken Wheat

Director: David Twohy

Feature length: 135 minutes

Extras: Audio Commentary With Writer/Director David Twohy and Actors Karl Urban and Alexa Davalos, Director’s Introduction, Deleted Scenes With Optional Director’s Commentary, Virtual Guide To The Chronicles Of Riddick, Visual Effects Featurette, Toombs Chase Log

Languages: English, French, and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Plus Surround Sound and English DTS Digital 5.1 Theatrical Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Subtitles For The Deaf And Hard Of Hearing and French and Spanish Language Subtitles

Packaging: Elite Red HD Case

Chapter Stops: 28

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Plus Surround Sound and DTS Digital 5.1 Theatrical Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2004/HD DVD Release: 2006

Theatrical Distributor: Universal Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Universal Studios Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: Not Rated

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

Five years have past since the events in “The Chronicles Of Riddick: Pitch Black” and “The Chronicles Of Riddick: Dark Fury.” The worlds of humanity have been targeted and systematically wiped out by the Necromongers, a fanatical religious army on a crusade to cleanse the universe of all human life because it believes that human sentient life in the known universe is a mistake. In another parallel dimension they call the “UnderVerse,” they believe humanity is destined to restart anew. It is a mysterious place where it is said that the dead rise again to new life. Those who cannot be converted are destroyed and great conquest icons are left behind each world they visit and destroy. It is their calling card. Only one race of humans poses a threat to the Necromonger crusade and Riddick happens to be one of the last few surviving warriors of this species known as Furyans. So a bounty is placed on his head to drive him out of hiding. Riddick traces the bounty to the one person who knew where he was going to live in self-exile, the holy man Imam (Keith David), one of two people Riddick had saved years earlier. When Riddick confronts Imam, he is introduced to another strange member of an offshoot of humanity referred to as The Elementals. The Elementals present an image of being neutral observers with only the wish for a balance to be kept in all things. However it is rumored that they have their own secret agenda as well. Aereon (Judi Dench) is an air elemental. The atoms of her body seem to become translucent when the wind blows. When Riddick learns of the true reason he has been driven out of hiding, he tries to resist the calling to confront his destiny, but between the Necromonger invasion, bounty hunters hot on his trail, and a spiteful young woman from Riddick’s past looking to get a piece of him for herself, he becomes the unlikely chosen one to change the course of humanity’s future forever.

Writer and Director David Twohy is to be commended for his ambitious plans to expand the “Riddick Universe” beyond what film fans originally experienced in “Pitch Black.” He has created a wondrous mythology that calls to mind various elements of other literary and feature film franchises. In some ways the Necromongers are a cross between fanatical Knights on crusade in the Holy Land during the Dark Ages and yet their belief system is somewhat Gnostic. I am not a Gnostic and what I know of it is limited, but if I am correct, Gnostics believe that creation is a trap and the trick is to liberate one’s self from that trap spiritually. There are variations on this belief that can be seen in Buddhism as well. So although the Necromongers are fanatical and tyrannical, they see themselves as doing their God’s will. Thus we have a great group of villains because the best and scariest ones are those who believe they are truly right. The sets and costume designs are some of the most elaborate ever produced for a sci-fi film since David Lynch’s 1984 feature film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s “Dune.” Riddick is sort of a cross between Snake Plissken and Conan The Barbarian. The film’s story structure seems to call both feature film characters to mind and yet if you watch both “Pitch Black” and “The Chronicles Of Riddick” closely, the films are structurally very similar with story points that echo the first film.

This was originally intended to be the first part of a proposed trilogy of films and on the audio commentary, Twohy does hint at what could come though there is no mention of a sequel in the works at all. I’d sure love to find out what happens next so if there are no more films, I hope Twohy will at least commission books that would conclude the story for fans. As it is now, we have a tragedy as Twohy states in the commentary track. However we only know as much as Twohy has let us know based on the two live action films, videogame prequel to the first film, animated feature, and the novels. Think of how differently the “Star Wars Saga” seems now that George Lucas has completed his prequel trilogy or take into consideration the great payoff the SCI FI Channel miniseries “Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars” has had on the series as a whole. I think we can’t judge “The Chronicles Of Riddick” fully until we’ve seen the whole thing and the proof of this is in the putting by this superior extended version found only on the Unrated Director’s Cut HD DVD.

The additional fifteen minutes reedited into the film makes a huge difference as we get to learn more about the characters and see characters that were never even introduced in the theatrical cut. We also get a better understanding of the relationships between them too. As far as I’m concerned this is the way the film should be seen and anyone who felt iffy about the theatrical version should give the Director’s Cut a spin. My only caveat with regard to the Director’s Cut is while the films conclusion still packs a jolt, it is a bit abrupt and too dark for what is already a very dark film. I liked the irony of the way the theatrical version concluded better and I wish the theatrical version’s ending was offered among the deleted scenes section as an alternate ending especially since the deleted scenes are mostly alternate takes that were unused and reshot with what is now in both versions of the film to some extent.

With Karl Urban commenting via satellite from New Zealand while Alexa Davalos and David Twohy appear to be present at the recording session together, this is a solid screen specific commentary that delves deeply into the character relationships as well as why certain elements of the film appear as they do from the Director’s standpoint. Twohy also provides optional commentary for a reel of three deleted and alternate scenes involving the arrival of Aereon on Helion Prime, the original chase sequence on planet U.V. 6, and an alternate conclusion for what happens to the bounty hunter Toombs in the story (8:03). These scenes do not have completed special effects and are presented in a letterboxed (2.40:1) aspect ratio with English Stereo Sound. The text commentary track found on the original DVD release strangely has been omitted from the HD DVD version. It is not clear why this feature was left out since the interactive capabilities of HD DVD clearly show that this is possible and should have been easy to include. Another element not included on the HD DVD version is the 360-degree examination of the sets. Even if there was space considerations for the best possible picture and sound quality, could not the self guided 360-degree exploration of the sets have been encoded onto the other side of the HD DVD, making it a double sided disc instead of a single sided one? Clearly this is the first example I have seen of an HD DVD that while porting over extra value material from the standard definition DVD release, it does not include all of the features included on the original version.

The Unrated Director’s Cut of “The Chronicles Of Riddick” presents the film with an outstanding widescreen (2.40:1) presentation along with a very well rounded and discrete English Dolby Digital 5.1 Plus Surround Soundtrack as well as dubbed French and Spanish Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Plus Surround Soundtrack. My receiver interprets these soundtracks are DTS Neo 6, but what struck me as odd was that exclusive to this American domestic HD DVD release is an English DTS Digital 5.1 Theatrical Surround Soundtrack. Perhaps that is why certain extra value materials from the original DVD release were not included here. The odd thing about the DTS track was that my receiver still interpreted at DTS Neo 6 instead of discrete DTS 5.1 Theatrical Surround Sound. My understanding is that the firmware upgrade now available for download or on a DVD from Toshiba should assist with compatibility issues between receivers and the HD DVD players. When I receive the DVD with the firmware upgrade and install it, I will let you all know in a future review. English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired and French and Spanish Language Subtitles are encoded as options too and the interactivity of the HD DVD easily allows for menu changes while the film is in progress as well as access to extra value materials too though there it is sort like accessing a branch that leaves the user back to where they were before in the film. I have no problem with that though.

The menus are easy to navigate, feature HD scenes from the film. Overall these are very well rendered interactive menus and quite impressive. The balance of the bonus features includes information on various items, places and characters from the film narrated by respective actors in character to give their own point of view of what one is seeing in the film. Sometimes one gets two different characters describing the same item in a different way. One can listen to these descriptions individually or as a whole. The Virtual Guide includes explanations of the Conquest Icon, Planet Crematoria, Elementals, Planet U.V. 6, The Lord Marshall, Necromongers, Necropolis, New Mecca, and The Quasi-Deads. There’s also a narrated log of Toombs’ 92-day quest to find Riddick that leads up to the opening scenes from the film (9:56) and a quick featurette with Vin Diesel giving a guided tour (3:12) as well as a visual effects featurette (6:02) There are other features that I believe were on the theatrical cut DVD, but not the Director’s cut. These include additional production design featurettes that explore the world and culture created for the Necromongers as well as New Mecca and an additional featurette discussing the decision to revisit the character after the sleeper success of “Pitch Black.” “The Chronicles Of Riddick: Unrated Director’s Cut” looks and sounds fantastic regardless now that it is finally available on HD DVD and the sound and picture quality blow away any high definition broadcast I have seen and heard on cable too. “The Chronicles Of Riddick: Unrated Director’s Cut” is available now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

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