The old joke about The History channel was that the H stood for Hitler, as it seemed that every time you turned on the channel, there was a show about World War II. Recently, the History Channel has changed its focus, from actual history to what I will charitably refer to as pseudo-history. One of the staples of that “pseudo-history” is the fixation with end of the world prophecies, and in particular, the claim that the Mayan calender ends on 12/21/2102 and that somehow, this fact portends the end of the world.
While the “science” and “scholarship” around these ends of days prophecies are dubious at best, it makes for great fodder for an action film. It is the fulfillment of this Mayan prophecy (actually, they didn’t predict then end of the world, rather just the end of their calender which aren’t necessarily the same thing), that forms the basis of Roland Emmerich’s film 2012. How does it stack up against two of his other well known action films, Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow? Unfortunately, not real well.
Film 
The best way I can describe this film is that it is a continuous action loop with no plot and ridiculous over the top action and mega disaster sequences. The film features the opening of fissure after fissures in the earth’s crust, the total destruction of many of the world’s largest cities, which are swallowed up before our eyes, including Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Speaking of Washington, D.C, what does Roland Emmerlich have against the White House? In Independence Day, it is blow to bits by an alien spacecraft.
In 2012, it is flattened by the USS John F. Kennedy, which is somehow swept into the D.C area by a giant tsunami and dropped on the White House. But I digress. The film has a very basic plot. The governments of the world discover that the tectonic plates are about to undergo massive changes which will remake the surface of the planet, all caused by a massive increase in the amount of neutrinos being released by the sun and heating up the Earth’s core (Don’t ask!).
In total secret, the world’s major governments put into place a top secret plan to save select members of the human race and humankinds’ achievements. However, the changes occur much faster than anticipated and have the governments scrambling to save themselves. While all this is going on, a family is racing against time to save themselves once the father figures out that a crazy radio host is correct about the impending doomsday. Will they survive? Will humankind survive? You get the picture.
2012 has the thinnest of plots. From the begging of the film to the end, the picture is nothing but one action sequence after another. If you love an onslaught of action sequences, each seemingly bigger and more ridiculous than the one before, you will love 2012. If on the other hand, you are like me, and prefer a plot, meaningful dialogue and character development and stellar acting, you will be very disappointed with this film. if you love mindless non stop action films, 2012 is the film for you. Otherwise, 2012 is rated as a rental only.
Video 
While I didn’t care for the film, the video is excellent. It features well saturated deep and rich colors, a fairly natural color palette and deep blacks. While some of the scenes can be a bit dark, shadow detail is excellent. Overall detail is very good although it does fall just a bit short of the very best looking films in regards to facial and background detail. Some of the darker interior and nighttime scenes exhibit a tiny degree of softness compared to the more brightly lit exterior scenes.
I didn’t detect any obvious evidence of edge enhancement, digital noise reduction or excessive video noise. Other than the softness as noted which is rather minor and the lack of a uber degree of detail, this is a film looking film and an excellent encode and fully worthy of a 4.5 star rating. I have no doubt that fans of the film will be more than pleased with the video presentation on this release.
Audio 
While I found the video presentation to fall just a tad short of the best looking Blu-ray releases, the same can’t be said for the audio which is simply astounding. Every aspect of the audio is of reference quality, with balls to the walls bass and dynamics which is off the charts. The film’s sound design features an aggressive use of the surrounds that creates a totally immersive sound experience. When the walls of homes and buildings begin to split and rip apart, it sounds as though your room is being torn apart too. Talk about floor and wall rattling bass, this encode has it in spades.
The fidelity of the recorded sound is excellent as well an is not fatiguing, even at reference and beyond levels. The dialogue track is also well recorded and well placed in the mix. Despite all the raucous action and cacophony, the dialogue track is always audible and intelligible. The sound design here represents an all out aural assault and is reference in all respects.
Special Features
The one disc release of this film contains a rather threadbare set of extras, limited to an alternate ending to the film as well as a commentary with writer/director Roland Emmerich and co-writer Harald Kloser. Also included is a PIP feature where Roland Emmerlich discusses various aspects of his vision for the film. We also get a movieIQ feature where information, trivia, etc. related to the film will pop up while you are watching the film. While I would have preferred being provided with the 2-disc Special Edition to review, I wasn’t… so I guess you will have to explore the extras found on the Special Edition release on your own.
Final Thoughts 
2012 is really a mindless action film that has little in the way of a plot. If you enjoy this type of film, by all means pick up a copy. For the rest of you, I would still rate the film as a rental, if only to experience to truly reference audio track which is stupendous.
