Blu-Ray Review: 2012
From Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
2012: Single Disc Blu-Ray Edition 
Hey, if the world ends in 2012, as the Mayans and other cultures predict, then we'd better start partying like it's 2011! The mother of all end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it action/adventure films is out on DVD and Blu-Ray and we just had to see if it looks as good at home as it did on the big screen! Here's the haps.....
Story goes: Wow! It's hot down here! Seems the earth's core is superheating as discovered by some uber-geology dudes headed by government scientist Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who alerts U.S. President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover) that increased solar flares are micro-waving the earth from the inside out and the result will be mega-quakes, volcanoes, floods.. uh real end of the world stuff!
Meanwhile, regular citizen Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), an unsuccessful novelist who wrote an end-of-the-world book, is divorced from hot wifie Kate (Amanda Peet) mostly because he never paid any attention to her and their two kiddies. She's now with doctor 90210 boob surgeon Gordon (Tom McCarthy) and Jackson is a limo driver in L.A.
Fault lines hit the fan tossing coastal California into the air and Jackson drives (and Gordon files) the family out of a crumbling L.A, with some amazing stunt driving/effects flying. Now, the race is on to find a map to a secret facility in China that is supposed to be loading arks with lucky apocalypse escapees and get on one of those suckers before it's too late!
Special Features: For some reason we only got a one-disc Blu-Ray with very few special features. A 2-disc set is available with a ton of extras but we'll have to go with what we got.
On this Blu-Ray version, we get an "Alternate Ending" that is quite different; including the survival of a character you thought had croaked. Interesting but they chose the right ending. You get an "Audio Commentary" with director Roland Emmerich and co-writer Harald Kloser who seem really excited about their film. You get interesting production notes and learn all kinds of fun details like the fact that, when one actor lost weight he sounded totally different when going back into a sound booth to re-record dialogue and that John Cusack was a better stunt driver than his stuntman. Worth a listen. 
You get the Movie IQ and the BD-Live options and there is a "Roland´s Vision: Picture-in-Picture," feature in which filmmakers, crew and actors appear in a little box over the movie talking about the beginnings of the idea through production etc. I hate these things because you have to watch the movie again to get these little details and they are each very short but this one is okay. I'd rather have a "making of" featurette I can watch separately. All the real effects and production "How did they do that?" details are in the 2-disc version. Sigh.
Wrapping Up: This effects-driven film looks mega-amazing in high def Blu-Ray!
Unlike the effects in a frenetic, beyond fast-paced Michael Bay movie, these special effects roll by more slowly, giving you the chance to point and say.. "hey, isn't that my apartment building sliding into Santa Monica Bay?" You can really appreciate how frightening it must be to see a tidal wave the size of Mt. Everest coming at you! The movie gives you your money's worth.
Sure the film presents the usual barely-developed characters fighting for their lives but I enjoy that stuff. 2012 has a great message about working together for the good and survival of all mankind that might be naive but we wish it were so. After global responses to earthquakes in Haiti and Chile recently, we can at least hope we'd send aid to those less fortunate in an end-of-the-world setting.
The Blu-Ray presentation of the film is the best it will ever look outside theaters and, unless it's Avatar in 3-D and IMAX, nothing is quite as impressive visually.
Well worth a rental and a buy for disaster film freaks... or die-hard John Cusack fans.
