(Not So) New to Blu: October 15-21

Apologies for the belated round-up of noteworthy new releases but if you haven’t already done so, give X-Men: Days of Future Past a big tick.

“Digitally shot with the Arri Alexa and for the first time in native 3D for its 3D version, X-Men: Days of Future Past is an invigorating viewing experience, though sharpness and clarity are often intentionally tweaked by any number of post-production bells and whistles at times.

“CGI can tend to look just slightly soft at times, especially with regard to some of the ‘portals’ the open in attack scenes which allow the mutants to travel through mini-wormholes to a new location.

“Contrast is strong, helping the film to overcome murkiness in the many darker sequences. There are no issues with image instability or compression artifacts.”

“We get a very effective DTS 7.1 track. Even if you don’t have the best system out there, chances are you will still be more than satisfied.

“All channels stayed active consistently and vocals were clear and concise throughout.”

But the extras will disappoint those hoping to see some of the footage that was cut for the theatrical release.

Variety reports Anna Paquin’s scenes as Rogue will be added back to the film and re-released as the Rogue Cut mid-2015 on homevideo platforms.

Despite more than 10 minutes of footage being added to the Rogue Cut, the film’s writer and producer Simon Kinberg claims the theatrical but is “the movie we’re the most proud of”.

“The Rover lands on Blu-ray with a very strong 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode with a 2.40:1 aspect ratio … picture quality is entirely gorgeous.”

“Colour has been bleached a bit from the final product giving a burned-in look to the visuals (and an occasional green cast in darker scenes).

“Flesh tones are necessarily rather pale, but sharpness is outstanding, and black levels are very good to excellent.”

“The Rover ‘s lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track provides consistent if sometimes subtle immersion, courtesy of a wealth of well placed ambient environmental effects.”

“Image quality is expectedly outstanding” on Million Dollar Arm. “Colours in high definition look great in the wide 2.39:1 frame. Detail and sharpness are entirely up to par.”

“The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix makes the most frequent use of the surround soundstage with the heavy barrage of background music and tunes by Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman.”

Also new are:

• The Two Faces of January
• Grace of Monaco
• April Rain
• Scorned
• A Good Man
• Ghostbusters II
• Ninja: Shadow of a Tear
• WWE Presents Sting

The only TV series are season two of Revolution (“colours are lovely and beautifully saturated“) and Emmy-nominated The World Wars (“solid and sharp“).