Earth 2100 (2009/ABC News/Speculation/MPI Blu-ray)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: D     Main Program: B-

 

 

Bob Woodruff hosts an interesting ABC News special called Earth 2100, which speculates as to what could happen to the planet if current oil (et al) consumption trends continue.  It is somewhat believable and has some interesting points and ideas, but also can be so loaded with worst-case scenarios that you could find it overdone.  In a sea of media purposely playing up bad news from bad “reality TV’ to news reports on a tabloid level designed to grab ratings cheaply, it is easy to ignore such a work, no matter how sincere.

 

I even agree that many of the scenarios are possible and probable, but maybe more time should have been spent analyzing them.  It helps that this is coming out on Blu-ray when hardly any such programming is available in the format and is worth a look, but its hard science is limited and that does not help it against silly disaster films like 2012.  Still, it is nice they even did the special and is bound to come up in discussions on the matter for the more savvy of debaters.

 

The picture is mislisted on the back of the case to its disadvantage as a 4 X 3 frame when it is actually 1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition video that has its limits and its moments.  Old analog video is mixed in at times (along with other styled, even flawed video) to be semi-documentary in look.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is a little better than the Dolby 2.0 Stereo with some healthy surrounds for such a program, but that is better than most such programs just the same.  There are no extras 

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo