New to Blu: September 18 – 24

Aladdin

➢ “Aladdin‘s 2160p/HDR UHD, framed at 2.39:1, is something akin to a nuts-and-bolts presentation for the format. It offers the obligatory light textural upgrades, modest improvements to sharpness, and general deepening (and darkening) of the colour palette by way of the HDR colour parameters …  This is a good UHD, nothing out of the ordinary but a solid image on its own and a nice little boost next to the Blu-ray.” — Blu-ray.com.

➢ “While the UHD may appear darker at first than its Blu-ray counterpart, I found the Blu-ray to appear almost washed out in some cases, with many of the colours appearing almost too vivid. The UHD tones them down a bit, but also allows for better shading of those colours, providing much more visual information, particularly in the multi-coloured costumes.” — Home Theater Forum.

➢ “A magically colourful and beautifully animated 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode … a vibrant feast for the eyes … with a sumptuous array of tans, yellows, and oranges …  Likewise, primaries are richly flamboyant and striking.” — High-Def Digest.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

➢ “Lionsgate’s 2160p HEVC-encoded transfer includes both Dolby Vision and HDR10 high dynamic range, and retains the film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40:1. It really doesn’t matter if this was an upconversion or not, because Chapter 3, like its predecessors, is a sight to behold on 4K-UHD Blu-ray. The level of detail is phenomenal.” — Home Theater Forum.

➢ “An often stunningly gorgeous, near-reference 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode.  Amid the graphic violence and hand-to-hand brutality, the freshly-minted transfer is shocking teeming with near-cartoonish life, boasting a wide array of spirited colours in every scene. The on-screen carnage is continuously awash sumptuous primaries.” — High-Def Digest.

➢ “Looks largely fantastic on Blu-ray, with one major contextual understanding: a lot of this film plays out in dark, often torrentially rainy, locations, and as such there is some passing and minor crush, along with occasional deficits in shadow detail. Otherwise, though, this is a stellar looking transfer.” — Blu-ray.com.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix

➢ “A consistently strong image. Sharpness always remained positive, as the movie exhibited fine delineation and accuracy. Any softness remained negligible in this tight presentation … Blacks seemed deep and dense, while shadows appeared smooth and concise. Everything about the image satisfied.” — DVD Movie Guide.

• The release of the 4K-UHD has been indefinitely delayed.

☞ Also new are The House That Jack Built (“quite detailed“), Jackie Chan’s Who Am I? and The Shadow.