I picked up the Ulitmate Collector's Edition on Tuesday and it's loaded to a certain extent.
The special features on the second disc are essentially ported over from the previous addition with one new featurette called Troy in Focus which is 23 minutes long. Essentially, it's Petersen talking about this director's cut. This set is no where near as comprehensive as say Lord of the Rings or the Matrix Trilogy and that's really the only bad part about the set.
The Art of Troy is wonderful, great stuff in there. Pages from Petersen's shooting script (with lots of Petersen's notations) is really great, especially while watching the film. The behind the scenes photos are nice and pristine...good stuff there. A very funny note written by Brad Pitt to Petersen about his suggestions on Achilles' wardrobe and the wardrobe of the Myrmidons is a nice treat (Pitt wasn't feelin' the "skirt" look).
As for the director's cut itself, a vast improvement over the theatrical, especially in the look of the film. Petersen recolored the entire film (his explanation is here:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/hd/new_cuts_for_new_formats.html) and it's leaps and bounds better than the theatrical version. It's more vivid, more lively than the previous version. The action has been pumped up quite a bit. Essentially, every action scene save one has been extended. And, the blood and guts flow and flow often.
(During one part of the film, Hector tells his wife about what will happen to Troy when he dies and he mentions babies been thrown over the city walls and the women being raped. Yeah, we get lots of glimpses of that.) We get more nudity. Dialogue's also been worked on. It seems that Petersen during very specific points in this new cut went back to the production track. By doing this, it changes certain performances greatly, in my opinion (Bloom's Paris is the best example). Some scenes have alternate takes. The scene between Paris and Helen when she stitches up his leg is completely gone (and not missed). The ending has been reworked slightly.
The much talked about score is still Horner's but turned down and reedited completely. I wish Petersen had enough money to go back and completely rescore the film from scratch but if this is what he could do with the time and money he had, it's much better than it was.
The weird part is the track used for the Achilles and Hector's battle. I think it's safe to say that that particular track from the theatrical version was the only memorable part of that score. Petersen drops it and LITERALLY replaces it with Elfman's main theme to the Planet of the Apes remake. I'm not kidding. And the funny thing is, it still works and changes the emphasis of the battle, slightly. Also, apparently, this was the temp track during post production. Petersen just loved that particular track over Horner's so he decided to restore it for the director's cut. Again, not better than what Horner did but different and I still think it works. It took about two viewings to get use to it.
Overall, this is another case of the studio interference. This director's cut doesn't reach the heights of Kingdom of Heaven Director's Cut or the Gladiator Extended Cut, but it definitely fills it out more. It feels more epic. Every actor gets more and it helps ten fold. It's much more engaging than before. It's just a better film hands down than what it was. The problems still lie with Petersen's execution in some spots but by giving the film room to breathe, you get a better, more entertaining film.
But, it doesn't warrant a nice boxset like this. It's kick ass but not for this film.
