New to Blu: May 30-June 5

Aloha The Descendants on Blu-ray! (And Young Adult … and The Darkest Hour …)

“The Descendants has been given such a strong 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode that it will make you want to get up and vacation in Hawaii immediately. The strength of this transfer never lets up.”

The best picture Oscar-nominee was shot on 35mm and has “a very naturally filmic look here, with a warm grain structure that’s untouched by digital noise reduction, edge enhancement, or other unnecessary types of post-production filtering.”

The DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio is “accurate to the source material. While the sound design may not be all that it could be, the Blu-ray gives us a near perfect replica.”

“Young Adult’s 1080p, 1.78:1-framed transfer isn’t a showstopper, but it’s a steady, consistent, and pretty much faultless performer.

“Paramount’s latest HD transfer, sourced from digital photography, yields excellent clarity, a consistent crispness, and rarely captures that flat, glossy ‘digital’ look.”

“The audio, while not quite as impressive as the video, does a good job. The DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack has a few moments, but the movie is almost all dialogue-driven.”

The Darkest Hour is being released in 2D and 3D editions.

The latter is “a strong and mostly satisfying MVC-encode, but it doesn’t quite deliver the wow factor expected of the format” whereas the former features “a first-rate level of image sharpness, clarity and dimensionality [and] a demo-quality soundtrack”.

Also new are the 1987 art house hit Babette’s Feast and WWE Edge while delayed from last week is The Yellow Submarine.