Onuris
Newly Enlightened
We put a huge $1.2m, 1200 sq ft home theater system in a local home built early this past spring. The homeowner is the CEO of a company that does the advertising and distribution of moves- film reels and digital copy to theaters, and DVD/Blue-ray to rental stores. The system is complex and requires periodic upgrading and tuning which I do for free, being that we are often invited over to see movies before they are released at the theaters. The highlight of the system is a Meridian 810 projector with a native resolution of 4096x2400, 10 mp, peak light output up to 3500 ANSI lumens. In addition to a PS3 for Blue-ray it is also has a digital cinema player to allow viewing of the media distributed to the theaters. Even with Blue-ray at 1080p it is difficult to see individual pixels when standing right up to the 14 ft screen. And with 2k or 4k, it is impossible to see any pixels, and the image is just incredible. The sound system is just as impressive as the video. Is better than even an IMAX theater. So we could not pass up an invite to see 2012 at 4k resolution last night.
Anyway on the the movie itself. I will start off by saying that this movie is geared more toward people like myself who like a lot of action and special effects, and in that regard it does not disappoint. In fact I will have to say that the CG effects and sound in this movie are some of the best I have ever experienced. The live action picture quality is top notch, right up with such reference material as Transformers, Transformers 2 and The Golden Compass. The clarity and depth are remarkable, the dimensionality is very convincing, the images are stable, razor sharp, and have tons of densely layered detail- you can see just about every grain of dirt and dust whirling even in the darkest shadows. The black levels and contrast balance are superb, and the color rendition is very life-like and natural. The CG rendering with the way that buildings fall and crumble, the way the earth falls apart, and water and waves move is very realistic and life-like. The sound design is just as astonishing. The sound images a full 360 degrees around the room with great front-to-back panning. The dynamic range is incredible, with infrasonics that threaten to tear the walls apart. The spatial details, dynamics, sound pressure levels and overall realism is amazing, a dynamic tour de force. The sound is on par with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Master and Commander, definitive references in this area.
The basis of the movie revolves around the belief that The Mayan calender sets the end of the world at Dec .21, 2012. The fact is the real date is 2220, and the calendar just ends and starts over again, does not predict a world ending event. Anyway, it makes a good basis for some Hollywood action material- the planets align, massive solar flares erupt, and the world as we know it comes to an end. The first part of the movie introduces us to the characters, led by John Cusak who plays a limo driver attempting to save his family from the impending doom, by getting them to one of the modern day arks that will save 400,000 people and representative animals from each species from extinction. On the way, they barely escape every conceivable form of annihilation, to the point where it is ridiculously unbelievable in that regard. I had to constantly hush the "oh really now"s from my girlfriend, but could not argue with her on them. Naturally, being a Hollywood movie, they could not kill off most of the main characters, needed them for a feel-good patriotic ending, despite that fact that billions of people, nearly the entire population of the earth just died. There is a good deal of humor throughout, much of it dark, but it had it's moments that were actually funny.
So this movie is a great roller coaster ride of action with a bit of a plot attached to it. If your idea of a good movie is lots of action, special effects, and great sound dynamics they you will probably not be disappointed with 2012, it really delivers in that regard.
Anyway on the the movie itself. I will start off by saying that this movie is geared more toward people like myself who like a lot of action and special effects, and in that regard it does not disappoint. In fact I will have to say that the CG effects and sound in this movie are some of the best I have ever experienced. The live action picture quality is top notch, right up with such reference material as Transformers, Transformers 2 and The Golden Compass. The clarity and depth are remarkable, the dimensionality is very convincing, the images are stable, razor sharp, and have tons of densely layered detail- you can see just about every grain of dirt and dust whirling even in the darkest shadows. The black levels and contrast balance are superb, and the color rendition is very life-like and natural. The CG rendering with the way that buildings fall and crumble, the way the earth falls apart, and water and waves move is very realistic and life-like. The sound design is just as astonishing. The sound images a full 360 degrees around the room with great front-to-back panning. The dynamic range is incredible, with infrasonics that threaten to tear the walls apart. The spatial details, dynamics, sound pressure levels and overall realism is amazing, a dynamic tour de force. The sound is on par with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Master and Commander, definitive references in this area.
The basis of the movie revolves around the belief that The Mayan calender sets the end of the world at Dec .21, 2012. The fact is the real date is 2220, and the calendar just ends and starts over again, does not predict a world ending event. Anyway, it makes a good basis for some Hollywood action material- the planets align, massive solar flares erupt, and the world as we know it comes to an end. The first part of the movie introduces us to the characters, led by John Cusak who plays a limo driver attempting to save his family from the impending doom, by getting them to one of the modern day arks that will save 400,000 people and representative animals from each species from extinction. On the way, they barely escape every conceivable form of annihilation, to the point where it is ridiculously unbelievable in that regard. I had to constantly hush the "oh really now"s from my girlfriend, but could not argue with her on them. Naturally, being a Hollywood movie, they could not kill off most of the main characters, needed them for a feel-good patriotic ending, despite that fact that billions of people, nearly the entire population of the earth just died. There is a good deal of humor throughout, much of it dark, but it had it's moments that were actually funny.
So this movie is a great roller coaster ride of action with a bit of a plot attached to it. If your idea of a good movie is lots of action, special effects, and great sound dynamics they you will probably not be disappointed with 2012, it really delivers in that regard.
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