Blu-ray Alert: April 21-27

The Lord of the Rings movies bow on Blu-ray this week after overcoming mixed reviews in the US to top sales charts.

Despite grumpiness about the movies being the theatrical cuts and not the extended editions, and the extras being standard definition from the original DVD releases, Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth phenomenon was the #1-selling Blu-ray release for the week ending April 11.

The consensus among US reviewers is the HD quality improves deeper into the trilogy, with The Fellowship of the Ring being least satisfactory and The Return of the King more what you’d expect for the format.

In the US and UK, Rings has been released as a trilogy only whereas here, from Wednesday, you can only buy the instalments separately.

Two entries in another franchise, Saw III and VI, make their Blu-ray debuts on Wednesday, as do the back-catalogue titles The Notebook, The Number 23 and Shoot ‘Em Up.

Also new this week are the opera titles, Giuseppe Verdi: La Traviata, Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio and Kenneth McMillan: Mayerling.