The year 2012 contains many important dates. They include:

July 27 – The Summer Olympics begin in London

April 1 – The U.S. Census from 1940 is opened to public viewing

March 22 – The Beatles album Please Please Me falls out of copyright

December 21 -The end of the world.

This apocalyptic prophecy dates back to the Mayan calendar, where in 2012 the thirteenth b’ak’tun (the largest Mayan unit of time, equal to about 400 years) comes to an end. In fact, there is nothing in Mayan lore that describes this day as the apocalypse; in theory, as the current b’ak’tun ends, the next one would begin. But that wouldn’t make for a good disaster movie, now would it?

Enter Roland Emmerich, the man behind such films as Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow. In an effort to capitalize on the worldwide apocalypse speculations, Emmerich and his writing partner Harald Kloser decided to come up with the most awesome disaster movie ever envisioned. Like most of his other films, this one is also about the end of the world.

Although the story follows a number of characters through doomsday, the obvious protagonist is everyman Jackson Cutis (the always loveable John Cusack). Curtis is a limo driver by day and a published author by night, though this duality has estranged him from his ex-wife and kids. In an effort to stay part of their lives, Curtis takes the kids on a camping trip to Yellowstone.

TWO YEARS PRIOR, brilliant geologist Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) realizes that neutrinos from the sun’s largest flare will cause the earth’s core temperature to increase past stable levels. He explains his theory to the U.S. government, warning them that immediate action is necessary to ensure the survival of the human race.

BACK TO 2012; as chunks of the earth’s crust begin to sink, giant earthquakes begin ravaging the west coast, and Curtis realizes that his only chance of surviving is to get his family airborne. And so begin the single most epic disaster scenes in any movie ever; by a landslide! See what I did there?

At its core, 2012 is a thriller. And when it is in full thriller stride, it’s unmatched by any film past or present in terms of its sheer awesomeness. Even Michael Bay could stand to learn a thing or two from Mr. Emmerich. What makes it truly great is how it allows you to see the full scope of the destruction without removing you from the flight of the small and insignificant protagonists, as they race to escape the devastation. It’s something a lot of films struggle with, and it’s nice to see one that gets it right.

The film loses its stride when it forays into the realm of drama. Emmerich works himself into a corner with the dialogue, and by virtue of the epic story most of the lines (especially towards

the end) sound something like this:

Calloused, power-hungry statesman: If your idealistic course of action fails, you will have the extinction of the entire human race on your hands!

Empathetic, humanitarian geologist: If letting billions of people die in vain is ‘humanity’ then maybe we’re not worth saving!

To the extent that 2012 stays in thriller mode, it is unsurpassed as far as disaster movies go. Unfortunately, since it has an unnecessarily long runtime (over 2 and a half hours) there is plenty of down time when nothing is exploding or collapsing or inexplicably flooding (looking at you, Himalayas). In these moments, the relative calm becomes quickly boring. The action segments had me gripping my seat and physically flinching as debris pelted toward me. But the second the action stopped, I found myself quickly bored. And since most of the action takes place in the first act, I unfortunately lost interest in the plight of humanity.

2012 is the first movie I have watched on Blu-Ray. And watching downtown Los Angeles get demolished in crisp, 1080p high definition, I had a striking revelation… This would look just as awesome in standard definition! If your TV is large enough that you can actually notice a difference in quality between DVD and Blu-Ray, and you are somehow invested in counting each of John Cusack‘s gorgeous eyelashes, then a Blu-Ray player is for you. But on my 22″ flat screen, I saw no discernable difference between Blu-Ray quality and DVD quality. The movie will make you bite the living daylights out of your fingernails either way.

Special features include a video commentary on Emmerich‘s vision, which plays in screen with the film. Another feature is something called MovieIQ, but I wasn’t connected to the Internet so I couldn’t access it. The last special feature is an alternate ending, in which a supposedly dead character… was alive the whole time! Touching.

On the whole, 2012 promises to be an epic disaster movie, and to that end it delivers far better than I had expected. Emmerich clearly has the genre down to a science. I might even forgive the man for Godzilla. Well maybe not just yet.

Unfortunately, calling it an ‘epic disaster movie’ really doesn’t do the film justice. It’s like saying Titanic was a film about a boat sinking. There’s more to it than that.

Movie Grade: B+

DVD Features Grade: B-

Overall Grade: B