New to Blu: June 30 – July 6

Godzilla vs. Kong beats its chest here on both 4K-UHD and Blu-ray.

“Godzilla vs. Kong was captured digitally in the ARRIRAW codec (at 3.4 and 6.5K) using Arri Alexa Mini and Arri Alexa 65 cameras (with a variety of Arri, Panavision, and Cooke lenses) and it was finished as a native 4K Digital Intermediate at the 2.39:1 aspect ratio,” The Digital Bits reports.

“For its release on Ultra HD, the film was graded for high dynamic range (HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision options are all available on this disc).

“The image quality is spectacular. Detail abounds in nearly every shot … The overall colour palette is lush, vibrant, and wonderfully nuanced, with accurate skin tones, and richly-saturated skies and jungle-scapes.”

“The iconic monsters wreak absolute havoc on 4K Ultra HD with a notably gorgeous Dolby Vision HDR presentation and a phenomenal, reference-quality Dolby Atmos soundtrack,” High-Def Digest said.

“The Blu-ray just can’t hold a candle to the 4K UHD release,” AV Nirvana said. “It’s good and all, but it suffers from milky blacks, lack of colour saturation without the HDR, and generally the detail levels aren’t as strong.”

Chaos Walking misses out on a 4K-UHD release, despite being for sale on the format in Australia (it’s yet another example of Roadshow Entertainment treating this market as a backwater — as is the distributor offering another new release, The Courier, here on DVD-only but on Blu-ray across the Tasman).

So Kiwis can only feel the frustration of AV Nirvana’s reviewer: “The Blu-ray looks and sounds fantastic, and while we didn’t get the 4K UHD to review, I can only imagine how fantastic it must look.”

“This is by and large a really nice looking transfer with typically excellent detail levels and really appealing clarity,” Blu-ray.com said.

“Surround activity is very well handled throughout the presentation, aided and abetted by the glut of outdoor material, where ambient environmental effects can alternately sweep around the listener or be anchored in discrete channels.”