Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Games of the XXX Olympiad: London 2012 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 21, 2012

The 2012 Summer Olympics in London provided almost an embarrassment of riches for armchair enthusiasts spread over several cable and broadcast channels, as well as internet streaming. When I rather innocently set my DVR to record the first couple of days of the ceremonies, I was shocked to see my available space shrink from around 80% free to less than 20% free just in the course of less than a week, since my DVR was automatically recording everything on all the stations I receive via satellite which had any Olympics coverage. There was such an amazing amount of content available that watching all of it was well nigh impossible, at least in anything approach “real time”. (Many of my really serious sports fan friends were aghast at the release of results in real time, before the time delayed broadcasts of various events had actually aired.) And so a “best of” compilation would seem to be a fantastic idea, at least on its face. But those who pick up this new two disc Blu-ray set may well wonder about this sort of Reader’s Digest approach to the XXX Olympiad, one which condenses seventeen days of content down to a mere two hours or so of “highlights”. In fact the first disc of this two disc set may be the most objectionable in this regard, while the second disc, which compiles more or less complete accountings of several of the more famous moments from this most recent Olympics, helps to at least make up for some of the skimmed over highlights content. While catching all of the Olympics via the overwhelming amount of content available might seem to be a difficult task at best, those who missed important moments or are looking to recapture favorite events via this set should pay particular attention to exactly what is offered on the second disc especially.

The first disc of this two disc set features two menu options, “Highlights” and “Day by Day”. That is a misleading choice right off the bat, as the “Day by Day” selections simply take the viewer to various chapter stops in the overall “Highlights” offering, an offering which runs barely two hours. This is a breathless hodgepodge of just about everything that happened during these Olympics, but as you might imagine, with only two hours to get through so much, what ends up happening is a few seconds devoted to various events. It almost becomes comical as we get the finales of various events with little or no context, while the stentorian narrator gives us segues that literally include such chestnuts as “meanwhile over at the gymnastics arena”.

The Highlights disc does strangely include the entire portentous introduction that NBC cobbled together from scenic aerial flybys while two British narrators extol the glories of the United Kingdom. That means that the much talked about Opening and Closing Ceremonies are given rather short shrift, with, once again, a narrator providing bridging (and often inconsequential) commentary instead of just letting the ceremonies play out. Do we really need to hear that the Queen has a sense of humor (a conclusion reached by virtue of her appearance with Daniel Craig, portraying James Bond), or that the closing ceremonies were the occasion of a reunion of that all important cultural phenomenon, The Spice Girls?

The second disc is most likely going to be the one that serious Olympics fans gravitate to, at least American Olympics fans, as we get much more complete coverage of the two events that really captured the American imagination this time around, Gymnastics and Swimming. While several aficionados probably expected this Olympiad to be another “Michael Phelps-fest”, and indeed Phelps’ attempts to become the all time reigning medal champion played an important part in the dramatic arc of this Olympics, few probably would have guessed that the stories of the young women chasing after their Olympic dreams would become so fascinating for so many. (It's almost painful in retrospect to see Jordyn Wieber sobbing in the background while an NBC interviewer chats up new champ Gabby Douglas.) This disc does an overall exceptional job of highlighting both of these phenomena, though once again there are occasional weird bridging moments that deprive the viewer of getting an overall sense of exactly what happened.

One of the real selling points here may well be the supplemental content, which finally gathers together some more or less complete broadcasts, including the thrilling final showdown for gold in women’s volleyball. Unfortunately also dotting the supplemental features are several “profiles” that became more and more annoying (to this Olympics fan, anyway) as the original broadcasts went on. A little background information is fine, but these overly dramatic and obviously scripted scenarios, replete with cloying music, become almost laughable after a while, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who saw Ryan Seacrest hosting some of these interviews and other events and wondered what alternate universe we had stumbled into.

Despite some of the qualms some may have with the compilation side of this collection, London 2012: Games of the XXX Olympiad may serve more than anything as a little souvenir of an exciting sporting event. It’s probably unrealistic to expect a two disc set to capture much more than this one does, and of course given the huge variety of interests of various viewers it’s also unfair to expect every event that any given individual viewer may prefer to see to be included. The Highlights here are too rushed and perfunctory to generate much interest or drama, but the second disc and the supplements give more of a flavor of what exactly drew so many millions of American viewers to this amazing celebration of international athletics.

Games of the XXX Olympiad: London 2012 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

London 2012: Games of the XXX Olympiad is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Gaiam and NBC with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. When is a bug a peacock? When the little "bug", the burnt in logo that accompanies many broadcasts these days, is the iconic NBC mascot, which appears nonstop in the upper right corner of this entire enterprise, as clearly shown in the screencaps accompanying this review. That slight distraction aside, this is pretty much what you'd expect to see, especially if you saw any of this Olympics broadcast in high definition either on NBC or any of its cable affiliates. Colors are very nicely saturated and quite robust most of the time, and fine object detail is very good in close- ups. Some of the coverage looks a bit ragged, especially in the highlights reel, perhaps due to conditions (the cycling marathon takes place in a drizzle, which lends a soft aspect to those proceedings.) There are some very minor stability issues on some of the aerial flybys of the London skyline and even occasionally on some patterned backgrounds and uniforms, but overall this is a sharp and precise looking offering.

Games of the XXX Olympiad: London 2012 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

London 2012: Games of the XXX Olympiad features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix which captures the fairly ubiquitous commentary and narration with decent enough fidelity, even if occasionally that play by play has a slightly boxy, artificial sound to it. I frankly can't recall for sure, but it seems to me at least the NBC broadcast material was presented in 5.1, which begs the question as to why this Blu-ray doesn't offer a surround mix (I may be misremembering, and would welcome any private messages from those who know for sure). That said, what's here captures the events well enough, since virtually everything is accompanied by narration, followed by brief interviews.

Games of the XXX Olympiad: London 2012 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Profiles includes Allison Schmitt & Michael Phelps (1080i; 1:36), Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings (1080i; 4:52), Allyson Felix (1080i; 2:33) and Women of Team USA (1080i; 4:06).


• Swimming includes Men's 400m Individual Medley (1080i; 5:59), Men's 4x100m Freestyle Relay (1080i; 5:06), Men's 200m Butterfly (1080i; 6:04), Men's 400x100m Medley Relay with Phelps Interview (1080i; 9:54), Women's 4x100m Freestyle Relay (1080i; 5:01), Women's 4x200m Freestyle Relay (1080i; 8:15) and Women's 200m Backstroke (1080i; 4:25).


• Track and Field includes Men's 100m (1080i; 11:26), Men's 4x400m Relay (1080i; 11:04), Women's 400m (1080i; 7:41), Women's 4x400 Relay (1080i; 9:11) and Decathlete Ashton Eaton (1080i; 12:11).


• Volleyball inclues Women's Beach Volleyball Gold Medal Match (1080i; 45:00).

Games of the XXX Olympiad: London 2012 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

London 2012: Games of the XXX Olympiad frankly left me a little underwhelmed, but that's perhaps because I was expecting something different than what is on tap here. I found the Highlights disc especially odd, although it's manic rush through over two weeks of content in just a few seconds over two hours became almost funny after a while. The second disc is much better, with some really good coverage of the two big events that captured a lot of Americans' interest. Depending on what your particular interests or expectations are, this two disc set will probably give you some of what you're looking for, while perhaps also leaving you wanting a bit more. Taken as a whole though, this set offers good video and audio and boasts enough overall content to come Recommended.