I went to see the move, 2012, yesterday afternoon.
It has about the best, most realistic computer graphics I have ever seen yet in a movie. Unlike avatar, which depicts places no one has seen, even though gorgeously, everyone knows what LA looks like from above. They've seen pics of the earthquake devastation that brought down the overpasses and knows what that looks like. The scenes of the collapsing over passes, the ground separation ruptures, etc..., are so real one could swear they were news real footage. The gigantic tidal wave sweeping over the mountain tops that the Budist Monk sees approaching his mountain top monastery look just like the real thing. I am going to see it again, this time with my son. I am going to look as hard as I can for graphic artefacts. It's almost like a challenge.
The rest of the movie? The Mayan Calendar plot is ridiculous, but for most folks who believe in that sort of stuff its something to hang their hat on. The cause of the calamity is the Sun undergoing the highest peak in solar spots ever recorded, which the plot claims causes the Solar generated Neutrinos to change to a new "type". Now, most Physics teachers know that 50 TRILLION Neutrinos pass through your body each second. Neutrinos conserve energy, linear momentum and angular momentum, spin, and they have NO charge or mass. If Neutrinos have mass they can not travel at the speed of Light, if they do NOT have mass they can. The most recent experiments on comparing Neutrino and Light travel times from distant stellar events shows that they arrive at the same time as Light from those events, even after travelling hundreds of millions of Light Years, so they have no mass. IF a Neutrino did "change" in such a way that it significantly interacted with the atoms of the mass it was passing through, it could only do that by changing one of its fundamental properties, which would require changes in the Sun itself of such a degree that it would be equivalent to a Super Nova. In other words, to transfer significant greater amounts of energy from the Sun sufficient to boil the core of the Earth and cause global crustal migrations, earthquakes, etc...., the equation
n0 → p+ + e− + ν0
shows that a particle lighter than an Electron would have to be created, or a new Neutrino with the mass energy of both a Neutron and a Proton would have to be created, and no Electron at all. The Sun is not hot enough to do that. The plot adds "strength" to the hot Neutrino idea by comparing them to microwave radiation, which is a completely different form of energy matter interaction. The Wikipedia gives a good presentation on Neutrinos.
The Mayans, of course, had no knowledge of Neutrinos or how the Sun works. The Wikipedia states this:
But that doesn't stop the "Doom and Gloom" industry from pumping out their moneymaking schemes. One has to ask -- if the world is going to end on that date why are they working so hard to make so much money? It's like the TV news reporter giving advice on the stock market. If he knows so much about it why is he still working for a wage at some TV station?
Turning to the acting....
IMO, the best performance was given by Danny Glover, playing the POTUS. His time on screen was short but his performance anchored the drama and emotion of the plot. You could see the agony in his eyes. Even as I write this, thinking about it brings me to tears again.
The second best performance and, in my mind, the lead actor of the movie, was given by Chiwetel Ejiofor, playing Adrian Helmsley, the bright, young Physicist who brings the threat of the Solar Neutrinos to the attention of the US Government and becomes the . After Glover, HIS acting carries the movie, IMO. John Cusack, the lead actor playing Jackson Curtis, just doesn't seem believable. He never show true fear or appears frightened, although he acts hard at the attempt, and he is never out of breath doing the things he does in the movie. Amanda Peet seemed to phone in her role as Jackson' Curtis's wife. Several other small parts are turned in by their performers with excellent results, including Lisa Lu, playing some guy's grandma.
But, all in all, it is a great, action packed movie with STUNNING computer graphics. One I am going to see again.
It has about the best, most realistic computer graphics I have ever seen yet in a movie. Unlike avatar, which depicts places no one has seen, even though gorgeously, everyone knows what LA looks like from above. They've seen pics of the earthquake devastation that brought down the overpasses and knows what that looks like. The scenes of the collapsing over passes, the ground separation ruptures, etc..., are so real one could swear they were news real footage. The gigantic tidal wave sweeping over the mountain tops that the Budist Monk sees approaching his mountain top monastery look just like the real thing. I am going to see it again, this time with my son. I am going to look as hard as I can for graphic artefacts. It's almost like a challenge.
The rest of the movie? The Mayan Calendar plot is ridiculous, but for most folks who believe in that sort of stuff its something to hang their hat on. The cause of the calamity is the Sun undergoing the highest peak in solar spots ever recorded, which the plot claims causes the Solar generated Neutrinos to change to a new "type". Now, most Physics teachers know that 50 TRILLION Neutrinos pass through your body each second. Neutrinos conserve energy, linear momentum and angular momentum, spin, and they have NO charge or mass. If Neutrinos have mass they can not travel at the speed of Light, if they do NOT have mass they can. The most recent experiments on comparing Neutrino and Light travel times from distant stellar events shows that they arrive at the same time as Light from those events, even after travelling hundreds of millions of Light Years, so they have no mass. IF a Neutrino did "change" in such a way that it significantly interacted with the atoms of the mass it was passing through, it could only do that by changing one of its fundamental properties, which would require changes in the Sun itself of such a degree that it would be equivalent to a Super Nova. In other words, to transfer significant greater amounts of energy from the Sun sufficient to boil the core of the Earth and cause global crustal migrations, earthquakes, etc...., the equation
n0 → p+ + e− + ν0
shows that a particle lighter than an Electron would have to be created, or a new Neutrino with the mass energy of both a Neutron and a Proton would have to be created, and no Electron at all. The Sun is not hot enough to do that. The plot adds "strength" to the hot Neutrino idea by comparing them to microwave radiation, which is a completely different form of energy matter interaction. The Wikipedia gives a good presentation on Neutrinos.
The Mayans, of course, had no knowledge of Neutrinos or how the Sun works. The Wikipedia states this:
The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, notably used by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization among others, completes a "great cycle" of thirteen b'ak'tuns (periods of 144,000 days each) since the mythical creation date of the calendar's current era.[6] On this day the Long Count date at creation—written 13.0.0.0.0 in modern notation, equivalent to August 11, 3114 BC in the proleptic Gregorian calendar—is repeated for the first time in a span of a little over 5,125 solar years.[7] The completion of this cycle and the repetition of the previous Creation's Long Count ending date have been central to the 2012 phenomenon. Academic researchers have not concluded that the ancient Maya themselves attached similar significance to this point in time.
Turning to the acting....
IMO, the best performance was given by Danny Glover, playing the POTUS. His time on screen was short but his performance anchored the drama and emotion of the plot. You could see the agony in his eyes. Even as I write this, thinking about it brings me to tears again.
The second best performance and, in my mind, the lead actor of the movie, was given by Chiwetel Ejiofor, playing Adrian Helmsley, the bright, young Physicist who brings the threat of the Solar Neutrinos to the attention of the US Government and becomes the . After Glover, HIS acting carries the movie, IMO. John Cusack, the lead actor playing Jackson Curtis, just doesn't seem believable. He never show true fear or appears frightened, although he acts hard at the attempt, and he is never out of breath doing the things he does in the movie. Amanda Peet seemed to phone in her role as Jackson' Curtis's wife. Several other small parts are turned in by their performers with excellent results, including Lisa Lu, playing some guy's grandma.
But, all in all, it is a great, action packed movie with STUNNING computer graphics. One I am going to see again.
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