The Chronicles of Riddick appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. This became a satisfying Dolby Vision presentation.
Overall definition seemed positive. Occasional wider shots betrayed a little softness, but most of the film felt accurate and well-defined.
I noticed no jagged edges or shimmering, and edge haloes felt absent. Print flaws also failed to appear, and grain seemed natural.
Riddick went with a palette that accentuated amber/red/purple with some blue/teal tossed in as well. The hues seemed appropriately rendered given stylistic choices, and HDR added impact to the tones.
Blacks showed good depth and darkness, while low-light shots became smooth and concise. HDR bolstered contrast and whites. This turned into a high-quality image.
Note that in addition to the 2.40:1 presentation that ran on movie screens, this set includes a 1.78:1 “open matte” edition for the flick’s theatrical cut. It indeed offers more information on the top and bottom of the screen.
Because one assumes the filmmakers composed the flick for 2.40:1, I’d go with that option. Still, it’s interesting to see the “expanded” image as well. It comes with picture quality that seems identical to that of the 2.40:1 version.
Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, I felt pleased with the Dolby Atmos soundtrack of The Chronicles of Riddick, as it firmly earned an “A-”. I expected an assault on my ears and that’s what I usually got.
The soundfield consistently used all the channels to good advantage, as the mix featured a wide and involving soundstage. Music demonstrated excellent stereo delineation, and the effects popped up all over the spectrum.
Those elements showed nice localization and melded together smoothly. The surrounds played a very active role and added quite a lot to the mix.
Given the film’s use of so much action, the soundtrack sure gave us many opportunities for involvement, and it never disappointed. This was a vivid and engrossing mix.
Happily, the audio quality lived up expectations as well. Speech consistently came across as warm and natural, and I noticed no signs of edginess or issues with intelligibility.
Music could have become lost amidst all the effects, but the score managed to maintain its own personality. The music stayed loud and dynamic, as the track replicated the score with nice clarity and definition.
Unsurprisingly, the effects packed a wallop. They were vibrant and accurate, with clear highs and booming bass.
Low-end was always tight and firm, as the track exhibited genuinely terrific bass response. The audio lived up to expectations and worked very well.
How did this 4K UHD compare to the simultaneously released Arrow Blu-ray? Both offered identical Atmos audio.
The Dolby Vision 4K UHD brought improvements in delineation, colors and blacks. It turned into a nice step up in quality.
On separate discs, this set includes both the film’s theatrical version (1:59:07) as well as an Unrated Director’s Cut (2:14:05). How does the Director’s Cut expand the original?
It adds some violence that doesn’t work for “PG-13”, and it also expands character and narrative areas. None of these make Riddick a good movie, but the longer version does feel more complete.
Note that the theatrical version – whether 2.40:1 or 1.78:1 - offered both Atmos and DTS-HD MA 5.1 mixes, but the DC only brought that 5.1 track.
Alongside the Director’s Cut, we get two audio commentaries, with the first from writer/director David Twohy and actors Karl Urban and Alexa Davalos. Through the wonders of teleconferencing, the commentary offers the impression all three sit together for their running, screen-specific discussion.
The piece focuses on locations and sets, with information about the elaborate nature of the latter. We hear a little about casting via stories like the one that explains how they landed Judi Dench. Some story and character notes also appear, along with good details about the differences between the theatrical and unrated cuts.
Those elements are the best part of the commentary, as Twohy aptly lets us know what changes he made for the longer version and why he executed them. Otherwise, this is a pretty bland track.
Some of the character/story pieces give us a better appreciation for what Twohy wanted to do, and Urban provides some nice humor and insights into his role. Davalos proves less useful, as she mostly just talks about how great everything was.
The commentary definitely suffers from too much happy talk as well as more than a few empty spaces. Parts of it succeed, but as a whole, this is a somewhat dull discussion.
For the second commentary, we hear from Twohy and actor Vin Diesel. Both sit together for their running, screen-specific look at story/characters and changes for the extended cut, cast and performances, connections to other films in the series, action, sets and connected domains.
Tuohy and Diesel recorded this track in 2009 for inclusion on that year's Blu-ray release. However, that disc lacked this commentary and as far as I can tell, it makes its public debut here.
Why did the discussion apparently sit on the shelf for 15 years? I don't know, but perhaps it stayed under wraps because it seems pretty dull.
Of course, if studios refused to release boring commentaries, we'd find many fewer of them on the market. And truth to tell, this chat never becomes bad.
But it lacks a lot of spark and informational value. Though the track never quite flops, it fails to turn into anything especially compelling.
Going to video extras, the Theatrical Cut disc offers materials created for this release. Ambition on Another Scale goes for one hour, 13 minutes, 48 seconds and offers info from Twohy, miniature effects artist Ian Hunter, storyboard artist Brian Murray, concept artist Matt Codd, lead matte artist Dylan Cole and actors Keith David and Linus Roache.
“Scale” looks at how Twohy came to Pitch Black and elements of its creation, the development of the sequel, story/characters, visual design, cast and performances, sets and green screen, miniatures, matte art and other effects, the film’s release, reception and legacy.
With nearly 75 minutes at its disposal, one might expect a comprehensive documentary from “Scale”. However, when you look at the limited roster of participants, that provides a hint that the show won’t cover the entire production.
Which generally seems fine, especially because this set includes so many other features that examine different domains. “Scale” doesn’t deliver a broad take on the flick but it comes with plenty of good details.
Realizing Riddick lasts 13 minutes, 49 seconds. It gives us a chat with Twohy.
He discusses the creation of Pitch Black as well as the development of the sequel. Twohy covers the topics well, especially when he gets into conflicts with the studio.
Next comes Back to Black. A 10-minute, 42-second piece, it features Brian Murray.
The storyboard artist chats about his work on the film and his collaboration with Tuohy. He delivers useful notes.
Chronicles of a Cult Film Celebrity goes for 10 minutes, 17 seconds. This reel involves Keith David.
The actor talks about his experiences during the Rididick shoot as well as other aspects of his career. Though David brings a few decent notes, the chat doesn’t add up to much as a whole.
The theatrical disc concludes with both teaser and theatrical trailers for Riddick.
The Unrated version of Riddick opens with a 47-second Introduction from Twohy. He simply lets us know that we may notice frame cuts when the material added for the unrated version appears – which was the case for the DVD but not here.
Three deleted scenes last a total of seven minutes, 43 seconds and mostly present exposition that would have appeared early in the flick. The movie provides those notes later, so these were fairly redundant.
The exception comes from the final scene, which depicts the death of a major character. It’s actually fairly interesting.
We can watch the scenes with or without comments from Twohy. He tosses out some notes about the sequences and also lets us know why they were cut. The commentary adds to our understanding of the filmmaking process.
With Virtual Guide to The Chronicles of Riddick, we get a seven-minute, 42-second piece that offers details about the movie’s various elements. We find out about things like the Necromongers, the Elementals, Helion Prime, and Planet UV, as the feature digs into 10 components in all.
Some of the information already pops up in the movie, but it offers a nice shorthand way to remind you of the different pieces. A fair amount of new bits help make this more enriching. In a nice touch, all the narration comes from cast members.
Inside Visual Effects Revealed, we find a six-minute, two-second featurette. We hear from Twohy, visual effects supervisors Peter Chiang and Mike Wassel, compositing supervisor Sean McPherson, and digital effects supervisor Mike O’Neal.
They discuss the execution of visuals like Aereon, a burning man, planet surfaces, set extensions, and CG animals. It’s too short to provide much depth, but it tells us some nice notes.
After this we locate Toombs’ Chase Log, a nine-minute, 59-second piece that follows the bounty hunter’s path. We see how he came to find Riddick and other aspects of his journey. It’s not great, but it’s cute and will be fun for fans.
Creation of New Mecca spans 11 minutes, 10 seconds and offers info from Twohy, Diesel, David, producer Scott Kroopf, executive producer George Zakk, production designer Holger Gross, production illustrator Jim Martin, costume designer Ellen Mirojnick, prop master Tom Tomlinson, visual effects supervisor Ian Hunter, and actors and Judi Dench.
“Creation” looks at characters, costumes, props and aspects of the New Mecca setting. It becomes a fairly effective overview.
With Riddick Rises, we get a 13-minute, 25-second reel that brings comments from Diesel, Twohy, Zakk, Kroopf, Gross, Davalos, supervising art director Kevin Ishioka, fight coordinator Bradley James Allen, stunt coordinator Bob Brown, and actor Nick Chinlund.
“Rises” covers the lead character, Twohy’s impact on the film, production design, cast, and stunts. Despite a little happy talk, this delivers a mostly engaging piece.
Keep What You Kill fills 17 minutes, 28 seconds with remarks from Twohy, Diesel, Zakk, Kroopf, Urban, Gross, Mirojnick, Roache, Codd, costume supervisor Jim Tyson, makeup department head Victoria Down, makeup designer Ve Neill, and actors Colm Feore and Thandie Newton.
Here we look at aspects related to the Necromongers. “Keep” echoes the other featurettes and works pretty well.
An Interactive Production Calendar consists of 24 minutes, 38 seconds of footage that follows the film via behind the scenes shots that pursue the shoot in chronological order. These tend to be brief and superficial but they still give us some fun glimpses.
Originally featured as part of the 2009 Blu-ray’s picture-in-picture component, Production Vignettes occupy a total of 33 minutes, 59 seconds. These give us glimpses of pre-viz footage, shots from the set, concept art and comments. We hear from Diesel, Twohy, Kroopf, Gross, Martin, David, Mirojnick, Zakk, Feore, Hunter, Ishioka, Chinlund, and Brown.
Across these comments, we get thoughts about the push toward a sequel, story/character areas, sets and production design, costumes, stunts and action, various effects, cast and performances,
The clips seem decent but not great. This becomes especially true because they occasionally repeat snippets from the other featurettes.
Vin Diesel’s Guided Tour spans three minutes, 10 seconds and allows the actor to show us around the movie’s sets. Basically he praises the work involved, so don’t expect much, though it seems semi-cool to see the sets in their raw state.
With Riddick’s Worlds, we find eight short clips that each run 25 seconds as they panning shots of sets. These segments don’t add much.
Eight clips show up under On-Set Interviews. They occupy a total of 21 minutes, 57 seconds and feature Diesel, Dench, Newton, Urban, Feore, Davalos, Twohy and Kroopf.
They offer basics about story/characters as well as aspects of the shoot. Created to sell the movie, these don’t offer a lot of substance.
In the same vein, six Promotional Interviews span 22 minutes, two seconds. Here we hear from Diesel, Newton, Urban, Davalos, Feore and Twohy.
Unsurprisingly, these touch on domains similar to those found in the prior compilation. Unsurprisingly, they offer a lot of fluff and not much worthwhile content.
On Disc Three, we find Escape from Butcher Bay. That was the title of a 2004 videogame that connected to Riddick.
This 33-minute, 42-second compilation lets viewers see the game’s cutscenes, a matter of interest because these used the vocal talents of Diesel and other notables. The 20-year-old graphics look terrible but this becomes a fun extra nonetheless.
Finally, The Lowdown brings a 2004 TV program intended to promote the film. It goes for 22 minutes, four seconds and features remarks from Diesel, Feore, Tuohy, Newton, Dench, Urban, Davalos, Gross, Brown, Ishioka, Kroopf, and fight coordinator Bradley James Allan.
“Lowdown” looks at story/characters, sets, action and the flick’s “multimedia universe”. While not bad for the promo show, “Lowdown” nonetheless works hard to sell the movie, so it lacks a lot of depth.
A sequel to a movie not seen by a lot of people, The Chronicles of Riddick does nothing to create new intrigue. Outside of its appealing visual design, it fails to present enough distinctiveness and creativity to earn it much of an audience. The 4K UHD boasts strong picture and audio along with an extensive collection of bonus materials. The movie does little for me, but I can’t complain about this high-quality release.
To rate this film, visit the DVD review of CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK
