Blu-ray Review: 2012
John pondered holding up a boombox to save the world
Hollywood has a large number of easy targets for vitriol such as Jerry Bruckheimer or Michael Bay who produce loud, visually stunning movies that are devoid of any quality story or character development. As many people sagely state “Michael Bay likes blowing sh*t up!”, and let us be frank unless we sit watching art house cinema and complaining about the fall of society, we all like to see stuff blowing up.
Another of these soft targets is Roland Emmerich, an unashamed creator of retina burning movies such as Independence Day and Godzilla. And for each of their hackneyed, cliché laden plot devices I have to say I do rather enjoy an Emmerich movie.
Conveniently sidestepping the mess that was 10,000 BC we now have 2012 which is billed as the disaster movie to end all others. It stars John Cusack in a somewhat blatant studio paycheck role as Jackson Curtis, a published novelist and divorced father of two. Sadly his book only sold a handful of copies, and insistence at sticking with the vocation cost him his marriage to the always charming Amanda Peet (Kate).
Jackson is driving a limo for a Russian billionaire Yuri Karpov (Zlatko Buric) while Kate is living with plastic surgeon Gordon (Tom McCarthy).
This group makes up the human interest part of the movie, as the Mayan forecasted end of the world date of 2012 rapidly approaches, and the proverbial hits the domestic appliance.
Scientists in India and a US adviser named Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) were aware of the upcoming crisis, and in secret the US has been using labour from around the globe to construct a series of arks that will ferry the “great and good” of the world’s elite who can afford the one billion dollar (per person) price tag to be part of the new world order. All this coming under order from the US president (Danny Glover) and slimy self-centered naer do well Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt).
Before moving on to discuss just how well the CG team destroy much of the entire planet I have to take a very slight stand for the story here. Yes the down on his luck, heart of gold Dad routine has been done a million times before. Yes, you root that he will get back together with his estranged wife, and hope the new plastic surgeon will meet an untimely demise. The kids are cute and we want everyone to survive (pretty much).
But as trite as some of this stuff is, the movie actually has a few subtle nods to themes such as making peace while you still can, and it doesn’t shy away from bumping off characters at regular intervals. So while this isn’t, and was never meant to be Shakespeare 2012 has genuine heart underneath the multimillion dollar effects.
And finally to those effects and for the most part they are spectacularly impressive. There is some very ropey CG at times (witness the family escaping in the limo as the streets fall apart around them) but on the whole the action is pretty spectacular.
Hollywood seems to be welcoming anything flying into buildings these days, and mass destruction on a global scale is served up for our entertainment. But don’t worry folks, the little people are only CG!
My own personal feelings about “we got a plane, you’re all dead, sorry” moments aside, the two and a half hour runtime whips by relatively quickly. Action sequences are fairly close together and the story never really gets too sluggish to the point you would be looking at your watch and waiting for the next tidal wave or earthquake.
2012 is big dumb fun with a surprising amount of heart, and as a reference disc it will give any system a serious workout. Just don’t expect high art and you won’t walk away disappointed.
Audio Visual
Lets get down to business right from the off here. 2012 is a reference disc, pure and simple. Visuals are gorgeous, and this 1080p MPEG4 encode is nearly almost rock solid. Save for a couple of contrast issues in darker scenes it is spot on.
As with a lot of CG laden movies the clarity of the Blu-ray transfer shows up a few slightly wonky effects shots, but scenes such as the image above of the cast escaping as the city collapses around them is mesmerising. Just watching the buildings collapse, glass shatter, etc is simply stunning.
While watching the movie I Tweeted to say it had possibly the best audio I’ve ever heard in a home disc release, and bar a couple of minor niggles I did notice later on during the film I stand by that knee jerk 140 character reaction. The DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack is a powerhouse that gives each and every speaker in your surround setup a serious workout. Even during quiet conversation scenes such as on the aeroplane full of Yuri’s cars the rear speakers are constantly chattering with clanks and clangs.
The minor gripe is the bass could be a little more bombastic during some of the serious destruction scenes. Watch a movie such as Die Hard 4.0 and enjoy the shoot out scene where Bruce Willis first meets Justin Long. Gunshots rain down, heavy deep and thumbing bass abounds. I would have expected something similar here, but considering the whole world is going to hell in a very large handbasket, things can be a little weedy at times.
Those minor items on the snagging list aside, this is a great looking and sounding disc.
Bonus Features
This UK presentation of 2012 is interesting. In the US there were two releases, a standard single disc with just the movie and a few extras as well as a two disc Special Edition with a load of HD exclusive items.
We get a single disc version containing all the extras from the Special Edition. Good for us, but I wonder whether bitrates were dropped anywhere to keep everything down to a single BD50?
Anyway, the following features are included:
Audio Commentary – Roland Emmerich and his co-writer/composer Harald Kloser given a very functional and information heavy commentary on the movie which is technical but not particularly awe inspiring. There’s a lot of tidbits here but I wouldn’t say it’s a must listen.
Picture-in-Picture Commentary – Same goes for this one, not particularly great but you do get the added bonus of the cast and crew giving talking heads and some behind the scenes production stuff.
Alternate Ending – I’m very glad that this isn’t the ending that they used, as it cranks up the shmalz to eleven and negates some of the tough choices the filmmakers made in sending a small message through letting people go. Visual effects aren’t finished and there is no soundtrack. It’s nice to have here to show what could have been the ending, but a good reminder of why it wasn’t.
Deleted Scenes – One for the check box on the back of the packaging, five very short and unmemorable scenes that were right to be cut.
Roland Emmerich: The Master of the Modern Epic – Bring your sick bag, it’s ten minutes of people showering praise on how amazing Mr Emmerich is. Really Sony, you can do way better than this.
Interactive Mayan Calendar – Nice bit of fun this one. You have four options beginning with some video telling about the Mysteries of the Mayan Calendar and some extras for reading the glyphs themselves. The Mayan Horoscope is good for a bit of fun.
An Actor’s Perspective – A chat with the principal cast about making such a physical movie.
Science Behind the Destruction – This featurette is making a link between the Mayan calendar and the science that the movie is based on.
Designing the End of the World & Countdown to the Future – I’ve lumped these two features together because they go hand in hand to deliver just over three quarters of an hour that makes up the bulk of the features here.
As you might expect the former is going deep into the CGI of the movie. I’m a sucker for these kind of features showing the computer tech behind the final image and this one is very heavy on behind the scenes material. The highlight of the features for me (no prizes for guessing what the low point was). The second part is focussing more on the Mayan beliefs that we’ll all be getting our comeuppance before the next round of videogame consoles are released. It’s a well paced scientific feature.
Summing Up
This is a Marmite movie for many folks, you either like Mr Emmerich’s brand of visual insanity or you view him as a hack to be vilified.
Personally I enjoyed 2012, despite it being two tons full of cliché for most of its considerable runtime. The CG effects are spectacular, the disc looks and sounds amazing and the features are decent enough to keep fans entertained.
If for nothing else, 2012 is a must have reference disc to keep in your collection.
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If audio is near reference, I MIGHT have to pick it up!
Yah, now that I have my tax return check . . . and have already preordered Splinter Cell . . . I think I can afford the Bluray just to see how well my surround responds.
Nice review !
Thanks guys. Bush it’s a great test but that bass does let it down just a fraction.