The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
Action, Science Fiction • 1h 59m
Director: David Twohy
Cast: Vin Diesel, Thandiwe Newton, Karl Urban, Alexa Davalos, Colm Feore, Linus Roache, Keith David, Yorick van Wageningen, Nick Chinlund, Roger Cross, Kim Hawthorne, Judi Dench, Mark Gibbon, Terry Chen, Christina Cox, Nigel Vonas, Raoul Ganeev, Alexis Llewellyn, Charles Zuckermann, Kristin Lehman, Aaron Douglas, Christopher Heyerdahl, Ty Olsson, Mark Acheson, Ron Selmour, Ben Cotton, Lorena Gale, Alexandr Kalugin
UHD tiers
About the film
After years of outrunning ruthless bounty hunters, escaped convict Riddick suddenly finds himself caught between opposing forces in a fight for the future of the human race. Now, waging incredible battles on fantastic and deadly worlds, this lone, reluctant hero will emerge as humanity's champion - and the last hope for a universe on the edge of annihilation.
- Featured Lists
- Alternative Titles
- The Chronicles of Riddick: The Director's Cut, Riddick 2 - Chronicles of Riddick, The Chronicles of Riddick (Director's Cut), Riddick II: The Chronicles of Riddick, The Chronicles of Riddick 2
Director: David Twohy
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Original 5.1 is included on the Arrow 4K Blu-ray and the Old Universal Blu-ray
Director: David Twohy
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray has terrible compression, but still beats out the old disc which was sourced from a mediocre old scan with edge enhancement, and which has compression issues of its own.
Original 5.1 mix: 1997 Pioneer LaserDisc or 1997 Live Entertainment NTSC DVD
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo mix: Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray
The film originally premiered with two mixes, a 5.1 for upgraded theaters, and a distinct matrixed Dolby Stereo mix for older venues. The original 5.1 mix can only be found on the earliest LD/DVD releases, as all later releases replace it with a mediocre 7.1 mix with reduced dynamic range.
The Atmos mix is based off of the previous 7.1 remix, but with futher alterations as per director's wishes. One scene intentionally drops out into silence, see this post for details.
Director: John Woo
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Arrow has a different grade and a better encode than the Shout! Factory, though the difference in either is not major. Imprint release, which leaves Shout! Factory's master and subtitles as is, is encoded by FiM. https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24473097&postcount=56
Original mix: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Alternate mix: Scanbox Nordic PAL DVD
Surround remix: HK Video France 4K Blu-ray (5.0)
Original mix: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray (similar to Criterion LaserDisc, but less distorted)
Alternate mix: Scanbox Nordic PAL DVD
Surround remix: HK Video France 4K Blu-ray (5.0)
Arrow used the alternate mix, but with extra filtering and lowered dynamic range. The alternate mix has much better fidelity.
Imprint presumably used the Shout! Factory original mix and left it as is, though no official confirmation.
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Criterion 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
1991 Orion LaserDisc vs 2024 Arrow 4K Blu-ray
Director: Billy Wilder
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
(transfer of the 1989 MGM LaserDisc, without problems plaguing Kino Lorber's release)
Arrow UHD is an update of the original 4K scan done for their BD. It is also visually far superior to the Kino version and adds Dolby Vision HDR. The Arrow UHD uses a new LD mono capture and has none of the issues or processing found in the Kino UHD which also used an LD mono capture and somehow mucked it up. Short of a brand new scan, the Arrow UHD is as good as it possibly can be.
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray > Paramount US and Capelight DE, same black crush on all three but the Arrow is encoded by FiM and has very good new supplements, the Capelight looks slightly low-passed, but in motion it probably looks about the same as the Paramount, see caps comparison for all three.
Arrow and Paramount basically sound the same, the Arrow has a slightly higher bitrate. Capelight is probably the same too but for now it's TBA.
Paramount US 4K Blu-ray has FEL Dolby Vision
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray and Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray have MEL Dolby Vision
Director: Bernard Rose
Scream Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Turbine 4K Blu-Ray
SF and Turbine also have the 2004 Audio Commentary with Bernard Rose, Clive Barker, Alan Poul and actors Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd and Kasi Lemmons
Director: Peter Jackson
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Both will look identical in motion but the Turbine looks marginally better due to a higher bitrate allocation by each cut being given its own disc, whereas Arrow had FiM seamlessly branch the two onto one. However, Arrow has both cuts in Open Matte (on Blu-Ray) and corrected the opening Universal logo's aspect ratio. https://slow.pics/c/McvVcYDG
Director: Rob Reiner
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · instagram.com (opens in a new tab)
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray > US Kino Lorber/Germany Capelight - caps and audio comparison on this page. Discussion is still ongoing about the 2.0 but as none of the three 4Ks seem to have the true original mix, I think it's fair to leave them all in the blue tier for now and only note that Kino Lorber has the worst PQ.
The initial release of the Capelight 4K mediabook had some playback issues with Dolby Vision on Panasonic devices due to an encoding error, the HDR10 apparently works fine, see Capelight’s official response here.
The 4K master has a shot at the very end of the movie (on James Caan's face) that looks incredibly soft and not good at all. This was visible on the DCP as well so it might just be a source issue rather than being the fault of Kino, Capelight or Arrow.
Director: Rob Reiner
Arrow 4K Blu-ray releasing December 14 2026
Like many of Capelight's other releases, the 4K Blu-ray is low-passed but still looks good.
30th Anniversary Shout! Factory BD has the original stereo mix
Director: Michael Anderson
Arrow 4K Blu-ray scheduled for Dec 2026 release
Director: Brian De Palma
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
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