If you’re one of the few, like myself, that missed 2012 in theaters and are now pondering over whether or not to watch the home release this review is mostly geared towards you. However, the rest of you can read it also for a good chuckle or for a good way to while away the hours before the office closes.

2012 actually starts in 2009 when scientists discover that the Earth’s core is heating up. This will cause the tectonic plates to shift and result in all sorts of mayhem including earthquakes, tidal waves and volcanic eruptions all over the planet.

When we get to 2012 (and the time trip is a quick one) the governments have made all sorts of arrangements to preserve the human race. As the doomsday clock ticks to midnight the world starts to fall apart. The lucky ones that manage to escape to safety watch in horror as everybody else succumbs to the widespread natural disasters.

As an added bonus we get to watch John Cusack strive to save his family by getting them to the fabled “arks” that the privileged have managed to secure for themselves. That means getting from California to China while all heck breaks loose around him and his ever growing entourage.

My view of 2012 will probably sound like an echo since most critics said similar stuff. The plot is wild. Perhaps even more untamed than the special effects. That Mayan calendar theory gets some mention and then some creative scientific explanations are tossed at us about neutrinos and solar flares and microwaves. But Chiwetel Ejiofor makes it sound so matter-of-fact that you can’t help by buy into it. I figured it would just be easier to smile and nod in the hopes that we could move along to the true reason anyone would want to see a film like 2012: the visual effects.

Oh yes, I thank you Mr. Emmerich for keeping the disaster film genre alive. He really outdid himself with 2012. California gets royally jacked up. Hawaii gets a volcanic makeover. Washington DC is trashed while The Vatican is toppled over right onto the praying public outside. 2012 isn’t just eye candy. It is an eye feast. It is a super-sized eye meal. This is definitely one to test drive on your super duper home entertainment center.

It’s easy to want to throw stones at the outrageous plot but it was actually decent. Harold Kloser (screenwriter) and Roland Emmerich (screenwriter / director) try to explain things enough so there is a feeling of logic and reality. I liked the stuff that had to do with Ejiofor’s scientist butting heads with Oliver Platt’s US chief of staff over how best to handle the evacuation plans. Ejiofor wants to give everyone a fair shake while Platt wants to only reserve seating for the most important members of the human race (the most smartest, the most talented and the most wealthy). 2012 borrows a little from Deep Impact (1998) with people sacrificing themselves so that others might live. This helps to give some heart and soul to the overblown laser light show.

The other half of the film has Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) trying to get his ex-wife (Amanda Peet), ex-wife’s current beau (Thomas McCarthy), and the two Curtis children (Liam James and Morgan Lily) to the safety zone in China the wacko in the woods (Woody Harrelson) told him about. I guess the Curtis’ adventure is supposed to serve as the civilian’s point of view of the events happening around them.

Unfortunately, it came across more like a Disney thrill ride rather than an emotionally charged struggle for survival. The Curtis Family had so much luck on their side that I thought the Lucky Charms leprechaun was driving.

I appreciate that The Curtis Family is there to represent the common man’s reaction to the cataclysmic events but their antics seemed to make 2012 at lot less grounded and more amusing than it should’ve been. 2012 really seems like two different movies that never quite come together even towards the end. One minute we’re in Air Force One narrowly escaping the Washington DC quake as the President’s daughter (Thandie Newton) weeps for her father (Danny Glover). And then we zip to Jackson driving a trailer through a hail of lava rocks as if he was in a virtual reality game.

Okay, so 2012 is a fun and exciting ride but the unevenness kills the emotional depth and the movie really could’ve benefitted with more depictions of genuine feelings. I think Emmerich’s main goal was to entertain rather than deliver a dramatically heavy approach to the end of the world. Not a bad thing since he accomplished his goal. 2012, though it runs about 20 minutes too long, is entertaining and the special effects help to disguise the holes in the plot.

The DVD special features include Adam Lambert’s music video “Time For Miracles”, behind the scenes of the music video, Countdown To The Future featurette, director’s commentary, alternate ending, deleted scenes and some other featurettes. And then the Blu-Ray has all that stuff along with BD-Live and Movie IQ options.

Rhymes With: Deep Impact (1998), Armageddon (1998), Poseidon (2006), The Day After Tomorrow (2004), The Core (2003)