I watched the 4K Chronicles of Riddick director’s cut last night. Main reaction: It was wonderful to finally see it in 4K on an OLED TV. I love visual aesthetics of the movie. Especially all the Necromonger stuff. Just so rich visually.
I honestly didn’t notice all that much extra content. Still have to give a rewatch to the theatrical release. But with 14:32 additional footage I know that there are extended scenes and a bit more dialogue sprinkled through the film to flesh out the characters and their arcs more. I felt it most with the Imam and Aereon the Elemental. Pretty sure there was some new dialogue with Commander and Dame Vaako. Maybe with Jack/Kira as well. With the Purifier also?
The dream vision of the Furyan woman
Shirah is only in the director’s cut, right?
But the biggest question I have is about the periodic changes in speed of the film. Like it seems to go into something close-to-but-not-quite slow motion. Sort of like there’s a distortion of spacetime. Is that where the additional footage is added in the director’s cut? If so, I guess it works because of the overall high strangeness and trippiness of the mythos for the film. But that is something that’s part of the film, right? Or did I get a glitchy disk? (Assuming it’s the former.)
I’ll eventually try out the open matte format as well. I think the next time I give this movie a watch it’ll be to see if I like the theatrical cut better. That would be a rare thing for me, i.e., to like a theatrical cut better than director’s cut. So far the only time I’ve ever felt that was is with Blade Runner.