![2012 (Two-Disc Special Edition) [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TluPMQkZL.jpg)
Category: (DVD)
21 new, starting at $21.04
9 used, starting at $19.98
Now this is how you destroy the world. Roland Emmerich's
2012 pounces on a Nostradamus-style loophole in the Mayan
calendar and rams the apocalypse through it, gleefully conjuring up
an enormous amount of Saturday-matinee fun in the process. A
scientist (Chiwetel Ejiofor) detects shifting continental plates
and sun flares and realizes that this foretells the imminent
destruction of the planet. Just as the molten lava is about to hit
the fan, a novelist (John Cusack) takes his kids on a trip to
Yellowstone; later he'll hook up with his ex (Amanda Peet) and her
new boyfriend (Tom McCarthy) in a global journey toward safety. If
there is any safety. The suitably hair-raising plot lines are
punctuated--frequently, people, frequently--by visions of mayhem
around the globe: the Vatican falls over, the White House is
clobbered (Emmerich's Independence Day was not enough on
that score), and the California coastline dives into the Pacific
Ocean. Unlike other action directors we could name, Emmerich
actually understands how to let you see and drink in these vast
special-effects vistas--and they are incredible. He also honors the
old Irwin Allen disaster-movie tradition by actually shelling out
for good actors. Cusack and Ejiofor are convincing even in the
cheesiest material; toss in Danny Glover (the U.S. president),
Woody Harrelson (a nut-bar conspiracy-theorizing radio host),
Thandie Newton, and Oliver Platt, and you've got a very watchable
batch of people. Emmerich hasn't developed an ear for dialogue,
even at this stage in his career, and the final act goes on a bit
too long. This is a very silly movie, but if you've got a weakness
for B-movie energy and hairbreadth escapes, 2012 delivers
quite a bit of both. --Robert Horton
Stills from 2012 (Click for
larger image)
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Pretty good!Reviewed by M. Stevens, 2010-03-09
I liked this movie about as much as his last film, "The Day After
Tomorrow". The special effects were great, and the ending hat a bit
of a twist. I did like the Alternate ending better then the one
they chose.
If you can suspend disbelief a bit, then you will enjoy this movie.
If you are one of those people who nit-picks every thing about
Sci-Fi movies then you probably won't.
Should've been called "Narrow Escape"Reviewed by Joseph, 2010-03-09
This "disaster" movie was a complete disaster. Where to
begin?
(Spoilers) The beginning is confusing. But it isn't until the
actual destruction began... Then I really started to hate this
movie. John Cusack and his family narrowly escape the destruction
about 6 times or more in this horrendous pile of garbage. Every
single time, it is right on their heels. And the parts where he
jumps the limo, and then later jumps the RV. It was embarassing.
And then the parts that attempt humor- I just wanted to throw a
brick through my TV screen. What could they have possibly been
thinking? Talk about a movie that had incredible potential. But
instead we just got an almost 3-hour steaming pile of dog
crap.
I hate this movie.
Borrow only!Reviewed by P.J.A., 2010-03-09
I bought this, can you believe it? Find someone like me who bought it and borrow it from them. My copy is now floating out in the world somewhere and I hope it never returns.
Two hours of my life that I'll never get backReviewed by James M. Irwin, 2010-03-09
I went to this movie with three friends and, on our way through the exit, we asked one another whether any of us could think of a worse movie that we'd seen. We all drew blanks. If special effects made a movie great, this one would be a chart-topper. But it takes more than that, and I just couldn't even begin to get around the two glaring flaws of this movie: [1] The pure cheesiness of the plot which mines every cliche that Hollywood has ever had; and [2] the completely incredible (literally) ability of the protagonists to survive disaster over and over again. To sum up, this is a movie with awe-inspiring visuals, but with a plot worthy of poor animation.
a+ for cgi, c+ for story, d for pricingReviewed by pjf, 2010-03-09
The cgi is outstanding, and well worth a rental. The soundtrack on
blu ray is also impressive with lots of bass. As for the story,
well thank goodness they spared us the 'parent separated from their
child spending the whole movie trying to reunite with them', which
is so often the plot of many disaster movies. And unlike most
disaster movies where you only get a few minutes of special
effects, this movie is choc a bloc with them.
So what's at fault? The story just misses in many ways. I wasn't
happy with the list of who died and who lived -- there were some
that didn't make it that impacted my satisfaction with the movie,
and others I would have rather sacrificed. There were plot points
that just got dropped at the end. For example, so much was made of
the little girl's hats I fully expected it to eventually have some
plot point to them -- to be like the glasses of water kid in the m
night shamalayan movie. If there was a point to that, I missed it.
And while there was some good vs evil themes and characters, some
selfish versus altruistic moralising in the movie, the selfish
really didn't get theirs, nor did the good really win. Much is made
of the crassness and near evil of one politician, but he goes
through the movie basically unchanged. The 'good' characters also
seem to come through the movie relatively unchanged. So the movie
ended more with a whimper than a bang in character
development.
I think if they had worked on the story a little harder, as hard as
they did the cgi, they'd have had a movie worthy of the spectacular
special effects, one people would be rushing to buy. As it was, few
of the characters made you really care about them one way or
another. It's not that the movie wasn't good as a popcorn movie,
it's just that with all that effort to make the special effects
state of the art you wonder why they didn't work equally as hard to
make the story compelling. Why put all that effort into a so so
script with mediocre characterization? Most characters didn't grow
or change. Those that did change, did so inexplicably, like the
bratty kids suddenly becoming nice? Right, that's likely to happen.
It was sloppy, hit or miss writing in that respect.
I also think it would have been good to go back to the Mayans who
predicted the 2012 disaster and then bring it forward - seems odd
to have a movie about the mayan prediction that ignored the mayan
origin. I also would have liked to see more flooding. Lots of
volcanos and earthquakes, but not so much flooding, until the end.
While new york has been done to death, why not show london being
submerged, the eye floating away? That was a missed opportunity. I
also would have liked to see the end position of the continents: a
sort of pangeatic configuration. This was talked of, but never
shown.
Still, even though the story was weak, I would have purchased the
blu ray for the cgi alone, because I enjoy disaster flicks, except
for the price. 24.99 is just too much. If the story were compelling
and uplifting, that would be another thing, but for cgi alone, as
this was, this will stay a rental for me until the price comes
down.
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