New to Blu: June 6-12

It’s a dino-mite week for Jurassic larks on Blu-ray.

Universal is celebrating the availability of the Jurassic Park trilogy as separate Blu-ray releases for the first time with a slew of 3D IMAX titles with a prehistoric preponderance: Sea Rex 3D: Journey to a Prehistoric World, Dinosaurs Alive! and Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia

The “documentary” content of this trio may be light but the picture quality of Dinosaurs Alive! is “lovely and stunning” while Patagonia boasts  “a picture-perfect high-def 3D image, one that features superior clarity, amazing depth, unbeatable detailing, strong colours, and even a few surprise 3D visuals”.

The separation of the Jurassic Park trilogy on Blu-ray comes nearly eight months after the box set went on sale.

It coincides with series five of Primeval’s release, along with series two of Sherlock, the latest Top Gear Adventures volume, The India Special & Supercars Across America, and a raft of 3D IMAX adventures: Grand Canyon Adventure – River at Risk, The Ultimate Wave: Tahiti and Wild Ocean.

“Popping The Ultimate Wave: Tahiti 3D into the Blu-ray player almost instantly recalls just how exciting this technology can be if it’s done right and accompanying a worthwhile cinematic venture.”

“The 3D presentation of Grand Canyon Adventure is a solid one. The opening sequence of credits offers the most ‘pop-out’ effects with a series of CGI bubble effects that leap right off the screen and levitate in front of your face, but other than that, it is a conservative but effective 3D presentation that has a strong sense of natural depth.”

New from the multiplex are Safe House and Chronicle while going direct to disc are Our Idiot Brother, Fastest and Sade: Bring Me Home – Live 2011.

“In spite of its heavily-stylised photography, this freshly-minted AVC-encoded transfer of Safe House looks fantastic on Blu-ray” and the DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix is “one of the best tracks I’ve heard in a long time”.

“While not the most mind-blowingly detailed picture I’ve seen this year, the level of clarity is generally very strong” on the latest ‘found footage’ thriller, Chronicle – so much so that “the camera’s footage is far too sharp and detailed to feel ‘real’”.

The Blu-ray transfer of Our Idiot Brother divided critics, with views ranging from “delivers a gorgeous image for this delightful film” to “good, but not quite great“.

The split may be due to different distributors and transfers, since the Australasian release, which was dubbed “a perfect high definition transfer”, has none of the extras on the US disc.