The Chronicles Of Riddick: Pitch Black - Special Edition
When the deep space transport vessel Hunter-Gratzner, carrying 40 passengers in suspended animation, encounters a lethal micrometeorite storm it is forced to crash land on a remote and desolate planet. Among the few survivors are the pilot (Radha Mitchell), three Moslems and their Imam (Keith David) heading for New Mecca, an art collector (Lewis Fitz-Gerald) and a boun.....
When the deep space transport vessel Hunter-Gratzner, carrying 40 passengers in suspended animation, encounters a lethal micrometeorite storm it is forced to crash land on a remote and desolate planet. Among the few survivors are the pilot (Radha Mitchell), three Moslems and their Imam (Keith David) heading for New Mecca, an art collector (Lewis Fitz-Gerald) and a bounty hunter (Cole Hauser) with his captive, an escaped murderer called Riddick (Vin Diesel).
As the group searches for the means to survive on this inhospitable world, with it's three differently hued suns providing a harsh and permanent daylight, Riddick escapes and throws them into a panic. When one of their number is found brutally slain in a series of underground chambers, they naturally blame Riddick, little realising that the planet is host to a ravening horde of voracious monsters.
Luckily for them, the monsters fear the light and will not venture out of their underground domain. However, our band soon find out that fortune is a fickle mistress when they realise that the solar system is moving into an alignment that will throw the planet into a prolonged eclipse. The race begins to escape the darkening world before the beasts pour forth onto the surface, hungry for blood. Riddick may be a real villain but he may also be their best chance of surviving what's coming for them…
Review
Pitch Black became an unexpected cult hit when it was released in the cinema - a B-movie story along the same sort of lines as Alien. However, the hype and reviews were so positive that I picked up the R1, unrated director's cut even before it's UK cinema release and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Director David Twohy does a great job here, from the initial crisis of the crash, slowly building on the tension of the group’s interaction with Riddick as the bad guy and the eventual change of focus to the creatures as the primary enemy. The plot starts quite slowly and it's quite some way into the movie before we get a clear view of the creatures, with only some tantalising glimpses before. This gives us time to build our knowledge of the primary characters, each of whom have their own demons to hide, before we are thrown into the escape or die scenario.
Vin Diesel's characterisation of Riddick is excellent - a killer who can see in the dark, brilliant. Riddick is also a reluctant anti-hero with little conscience and few morals, who'll kill anyone standing between him and his perceived goals. Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser and Keith David give good performances as the other three main characters with some good support from Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Claudia Black and Rhiana Griffith.
The picture is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and is an extremely high quality transfer with no obvious grain, grit, dust damage or compression artefacts, even with the somewhat wide range between the harsh daylight of three suns and the pitch dark. Given the dark subject matter, colour and black levels as well as the obvious tinting to better illustrate the alien weather effects are well handled throughout, in fact the blacks are really excellent - deep and solid. Riddick and the creatures night vision views are well realised with differing and very eerie visual distortions to good effect.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is quite impressive, making very good use of the surround system. The opening meteorite storm and subsequent crash-landing will give your system a thorough workout, with projectiles streaking across the soundstage against the chaotic sounds of the ship and crew in crisis. Vocals are clear throughout and Vin Diesel's bass tones are a delight to hear. Effects such as rain, wind and ambient noises are also well handled. The one negative point is the omission of the DTS track, included on the R1 version, which seemed a bit more gutsy with stronger bass effects and slightly better surround separation.
There might be some questions regarding the creature design, like "Why can they fly if they mostly live underground?" and "Won't those bony protuberances hamper their movement underground just a tad?". I know bats can fly but they don't grow to these proportions. I suppose it fits if they live in seriously huge underground caverns, anyway I found them suitably menacing and quite effective as film monsters, even though we'll probably never meet them again.
For a movie with a relatively low budget and high proportion of unknown actors, Pitch Black and the character of Riddick are classics of the science-fiction genré and well deserving of the confidence of Hollywood giving it a much bigger budget sequel. If that's successful, then we'll probably get a prequel as well.
Extras
While this is billed as a Special Edition, it's still a single disc production so the addition of the much improved, orrery based menu system and extra bonus features come at the expense of losing the production notes, cast biographies and Raveworld Pitch Black event footage that all appeared on the original release. Mind you, the latter feature was pretty boring so no loss there. It might also have been interesting to see the deleted scenes and alternative opening sequence so much discussed in the commentaries.
The Chronicles Of Riddick - Opening Sequence - A tantalising glimpse at the upcoming sequel to Pitch Black that plays automatically when the disc is inserted. This is a very good super-trailer and contains enough action and lavish visuals to whet the appetite of any science fiction or Riddick fans. It's presented in non-anamorphic widescreen with a basic Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and lasts just over nine minutes.
An Introduction by David Twohy - A blatant promotional piece with director David Twohy talking about his plans, or lack of such, for a sequel while working on Pitch Black and gives some brief information on the plot for that sequel when the chance came up to develop it. Lasts about two and a half minutes.
The Game Is On - A just under two-minute trailer for The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, a game for the XBox that takes place before the events in Pitch Black. An impressive looking game with good visuals and CG sequences and Riddick is again voiced by Vin Diesel.
The Johns Chase Log - A short diary of how bounty hunter Johns catches up with Riddick and leading up to Pitch Black. It covers the 76 days from Riddick's escape from Butcher Bay up until John's and he board the Hunter-Gratzner. There are entries for 17 days, which can either be played all at once or individually. It's presented in text form with accompanying voice-over by Cole Hauser and I suppose it provides a little background information but it doesn't add much to the movie other than set up a link from the video game. Lasts just over seven minutes when played in one go.
Feature Commentaries - There are two feature commentaries and both are well worth taking the time to listen to…- Vin Diesel, Cole Hauser and director David Twohy talk casually about the making of the film and give us a fair amount of information and production trivia such as the weather and location choices, cut scenes, anecdotes, etc.
- Director David Twohy, producer Tom Engelman and visual effects supervisor Peter Chiang cover the movie from a much more interesting and technical, although a tad drier, perspective and Chang gives some good details on the how the visual effects were achieved.
These were both included on the original release.
The Making Of Pitch Black - A short, five-minute promotional piece on the making of the movie. Plays mostly like a trailer with some behind the scenes shots and interview material with Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser and director David Twohy. There's also a glimpse at some the artwork and creature animation material. Included on the original release.
Dark Fury: Advancing The Arc - Writer Brett Matthews and director David Chung talk very briefly about Dark Fury, the short animated sequel to Pitch Black. Only lasts about one and a half minutes.
The Chronicles Of Riddick Website - A link to the official The Chronicles Of Riddick web site. You get the opportunity to become a Merc and join the hunt for Riddick.
Trailers - About three minutes worth of theatrical trailers for Thunderbirds, Van Helsing and The Chronicles Of Riddick.
The Chronicles Of Riddick Visual Encyclopedia - A sample of the full, expanded version that will accompany The Chronicles Of Riddick DVD. We get just over two minutes worth here, covering entries for words like orrery, merc and slam. Again, this is narrated by Cole Hauser.
A View Into The Dark - A short, four minute piece containing interviews with director David Twohy and Vin Diesel talking about the Riddick character and how it has been developed from the original appearance in Pitch Black to The Chronicles Of Riddick. Contains some behind the scenes clips from both movies.
Overall
This is a marketing re-release to set us up for the theatrical release of The Chronicles Of Riddick, the sequel to Pitch Black. As a Special Edition, it contains a beefier, if somewhat repeat offering of extras and bonus material but the price paid for this is the loss of the original extra material and the still missing DTS soundtrack that appeared on the R1 Unrated Director's Cut.
So if you do have either the original version or the unrated director's cut, then I don't think there's enough extra material here to justify a new purchase.
However, if you don't already have the original release or haven't seen the movie then this is well worth picking up as it is an excellent sci-fi horror story. If you intend seeing The Chronicles of Riddick then it's a must see to get more background information into the characters of Riddick and the Imam, etc.
The Trailer is Available here
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