2012 (Blu-ray) Official AVSForum Review - Page 3

Score it a 93! Yikes! With all due respect Ralph, this film is absolute tripe! I wasted 158 minutes of my life watching it! It's that bad.

my2cents.

Ed,

The 93 is for the audio/video, not the movie itself. Ralph rated it a 3/5, which I think is fair.

Ralph's a little generous sometimes, but he's not crazy!

Count me as another one who's glad he rented it first ... pretty bad movie overall. I didn't even think the CGI was that great. And it's bad enough to see them flying a plane between falling buildings once, but hey, let's see them do it AGAIN only in a bigger plane!

And the ending I know ... I'm not supposed to think of such things and just enjoy the ride.

It's one thing to have to check your brain at the door to enjoy a flick, another thing entirely to require having it removed completely without anesthesia by a miner using a jackhammer and pickax.

Coming soon, the Michael Bay sequel ... Friday the 2013th: Jason Is On Arc #4!

I watched 2012 Blu-ray edition today and i was stunned not so much for to image experience than the audio is a masterpiece i was shaken in my couch...
Great

Well, my thoughts are it was fun, it was over-the-top and it was blu-ray sweetness. I didn't go in expecting accuracy from Mr. Emmirich, just a thrill-a-minute experience....and he delivered on both counts.

It's just an action flick. Sometimes it's more fun to just go along for the ride instead of worrying about what kind of car got you there. My 2¢ worth.

ez

Do not read if you havent seen...

I somewhat agree, even though my past review doesnt show it..lol..My favorite part though is Woody Harleson.

The action is there sure, but its just like so many people say...get in car, everything splitting and falling apart "near miss"

Get in airplane, fly through falling building, dodge a few things...land...

Get in another plane, fly, nearly die, dodge more buildings land..

Get in car fall out of plane, somehow dont crash from sliding on snow and ice going probably 100mph...get out unscrapped and ok..

Get in scary "ark" nearly get killed from drowning, kid and dead beat dad saves the day and everyone walks away all good..

Just too much to handle but yes, sounds pretty good, looks pretty good..Never connected with any character other than Woody..

What did they do different when filming the indoor scenes in the arc-ships? That footage had incredible 3D feel to it, and really stood out from the rest of the film.

Filmed those scenes digitally, rather than with good ol' celluloid, like much of the rest of the film.

Well, it really stood out, and looked very cool.

What is it that creates the 3D effect, then? Just the added detail and sharpness?

Fair assessment.

Art

I was not terribly interested in this one due to all the comments of a weak LFE channel. Indeed, there were only one or two "shake the couch" moments, but the mid bass was used well I thought! That hit you in the chest feel. The Earth was cracking apart throughout the film, if they had used LFE at all points that they could have I think it would have been fatigueing. Yes, I wanted more, but the soundtrack still had it's merrits.

Just watched this today and I'll have to say it was disappointing in audio and video quality. The movie itself was ok, since I went it with low expectations. But I definitely thought the LFE should have been stronger. The CGI stuff kinda ruined those certain scenes as well. Overall, I'm glad it was a rental.

I'm not usually one for the "check your brain at the door" flix, as I believe we can and should expect modern films to offer (a) spectacular story, sound, and video/cgi effects,

That said, I'm going to make a rare exception here.

Outside of being too damn long and missing that deep, deep, bass which others have already spoken too, I found it to be so ridiculous and over the top that I actually enjoyed it somehow.

And although it missed the low-bass netherworld, I cannot remember the last film I saw with as much scene-to-scene shaking.

I feel Potts rating is fair, at the end of the day.


James

This was a movie was for a time when you just want to let your hair down, forget about the world and have a fun time. Sure you can have a good time watching a disaster movie....remember Titantic? Ok, so 2012 wasn't as good as Titantic but I had as good a time watching it as I did Titantic. You just needed to relax and go with the flow.

fafner

finally saw it
this looks too artificial often (sorry but i'm not a cgi freak and prefer things to look really REAL...), lacks the real 3D impact of non cgied stuff (but of course how can he film the real explosion (it will happen, it's even over due) of the Yellowstone or those giant ships that only exist in ...CGI...
the constant alternate of video an film also is annoying (cf highdefdigest comment very spot on)
the sound doesn't touch the ankle of TERMINATOR SALVATIONfor instance!(an absolute reference, with astonishing bass and mids highs)
even poseidon sounded much more impressive than 2012.
(that's the negative effect of having big pro speakers: reveals everything in terms of dynamics in the source or lack of it)

It also comes down to the shutterspeed of the camera. Digital cameras can film with open shutters and that gives a more lifelike effect. But can also use 1/48 shutter to imitate filmcamera shutters.

I started to watch this movie last night and couldn't agree more with the review..
PQ is eye candy and has a lot of great demo material in the audio department...
It is one of those movies that you just leave your brain somewhere else and simply enjoy the ride with some good laughs...

Finally got around watching this last week because there was absolutely nothing else to watch and was not expecting much but boy did this not disappoint. Even by the low standards I already set for myself in preparation this could be the worst movie I have seen in quite some time. I don't know how anybody could enjoy this. It's a popcorn flick but even most popcorn flicks make some sense and have some type of tension to make it appealing.

This was like watching a video game and a bad one at that. Watch yuour average family do superhero escapes and in the most boring routine imaginable. Watch the stepfather die and no one bats an eye. Watch the family walk around the cold mountains like it's a picnic and like finding a needle in a haystack thay get found. Watch them use the cars in a plane like it's speedracer.

This movie doesn't insult the viewers intelligence, it lobotomizes them. And to top it off the CGI effects were so incredibly fake looking and half assed that the Flintstones looked more lifelike. The video was over processed and the audio, which is the really the only reason I convinced myself I wanted to see this, lacked any oomph and the dynamic range was comparable to the acting range of Mr T.

I tried but I can't express myself enough how bad this movie was and I don't even want to get into the plot because that would be another 5 paragraphs. It just exhibits everything that is wrong with big budget movies today. I never thought I would live long enough to see a movie that made Transformers 1 and 2 and The Day After Tomorrow look like Oscar material so "bravo" to the movie in that sense.

lol

I just watched the Godzilla bluray and really enjoyed the audio and lfe dynamics. If only 2012 had the lfe of Godzilla.

I am spending the weekend with my daughter and son in law and we watched 2012 on Starz this evening. I had seen the BD when it was first released on BD and remembered how terminally stupid the film is but I had forgotten its reference quality audio. Wow! Even the lossy soundtrack was impressive. I am going to rent the BD again just to hear the HD audio again in my own home theater. As Ralph noted in his review, the video is outstanding, too. I plan to just check my brain at the door and enjoy the sights and sounds while avoiding thinking about them.

I enjoyed it.

I got the 2012 BD at BB and watched it again last night. It is at least as shallow and stupid as I had remembered, particularly the painfully lame attempts at humor. The romantic scenes were nearly as bad. The drama worked, sort of, and the video and audio were candy for the eyes and ears. The bottom line is that because I knew what to expect going into it this time, I was able to ignore its weaknesses and get caught up in its excitement. Recommended, if you don't expect too much.

Just want to add my thoughts that anyone considering purchasing this should just grab the DVD, unless you see a Blu-Ray copy that is very cheap. Out of the 30+ Blu-Ray movies I've watched, this one is least worth the extra cash. If you are like me, you check out Blu-Ray reviews primarily to see if it is worth the premium over it's DVD cousin.

I actually like the story and think it was a good movie in general, but as far as image quality it is not as good as some "up-converted" DVD's I've watched recently.

Specifically watching it back to back with the "The Day After Tomorrow" DVD, there was no benefit in image quality as you would expect/demand.

I wish I could do as you are, but since there are no lossless audio tracks on DVDs, I feel I'd be missing out on quality even if the PQ was identical