Friday
13Nov2009
Movie Review - '2012'
Friday, November 13, 2009 at 12:02AM | 2012
Starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Woody Harrelson  |
A common complaint leveled at movie critics, almost exclusively with big budget blockbusters, is that we expect them to be something
they're not. True, not everything tries to win Oscars and bad acting and writing can often be overlooked, but some films are so bad even on the basis that they should be evaluated
that you can only forgive so much in the interest of entertainment.
Within its own little universe, 2012 really only wants to create the apocalypse to end all apocalypses, and
it's pretty successful at it, frankly.
Director Roland
Emmerich is The Master of Disaster, having helmed a few movies that put human civilization on the
brink of extinction from one cause or another. There's always an unlikely hero, seldom a likely one, and familiar monuments get
demolished rather convincingly through computer animation. There's always a scientist who knows how it will play out, and somehow
amid all of this, there's romance in bloom.
As you might suspect, 2012 is loosely inspired by the end of the Mayan calendar, which goes dark in December of that year.
Some of the scientific theories at work here exist, although they may be shady. Still, unless you know these things going in, it
seems fairly plausible: The sun is basically cooking the crust of the Earth and eventually - say, December 2012 - it will finally
give way and everything will start to move uncontrollably. You probably don't know there are nearly 10,000 earthquakes a day because
most of that movement is so minor you never feel it. But it's always moving, and we know California is overdue for "the big one." So
why not?
Now, in Emmerich's world where all this is set in motion, does the movie work? More often than it doesn't, and that might be a
surprise. Considering his film is over two-and-a-half hours long, it holds together pretty well. That doesn't mean 2012
doesn't have its problems or that the things our survivors live through are in any way acceptable, but the movie just keeps rolling
on, and when Emmerich does slow down so we can catch our breath, these characters aren't that bad.
There's struggling novelist Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), who drives a limo for a Russian tycoon. He first suspects something's
wrong when he and he kids are detained by the Army at gunpoint during a trip to Yellowstone. While there, he meets geologist Adrian
Helmsley (Chiwetel
Ejiofor), who is leading the government's research into a disturbing trend of rising temperatures
under the Earth's surface. He knows what it means, but doesn't know how imminent the danger is.
Reader Comments (10)
No Pirate Radio review
sadness
They show phoenix burning right? Maybe UPS got swallowed too.... ;)
No Fantastic Fox review...
additional sadness.
Well if 2012 is true Ijust want everyone to know that the Colin Boyd special is good till then:)
nice review.... thanks.... i like movie 2012.. :)
this movie is one piece of good cake. roland made a big creative in his mind. all of his movie is distroying the city. like godzilla, independence day, day after tommorrow, at last in 2012 he dont want the world let it be. i think his next movie will be directed in jupiter.
Hi,
Why do people think 2012 will be the end of the world? I mean what if the Mayans ment that was the end of the way things worked now. Sort of age unlike that of the previous ones. That this new age starting at 2012 will not be a repeat cycle like before. Strange movie idea though.
the last comment:you can have right but every day even more their tooking about 2012,and i saw book about 2012...in other hand you can have right 'cause people was tooking about 1996 and 2002 that gonna be the end of the world...i don't know...we're goona find out when comes 2012 december 21...if that gonna happend people must know that we are responsible and we made shit off this world...and if is our future to die in 2012 ...we can't do anithing...that all... :| world was good without ass...people...
the film was a great and i really liked it but why is that the world will end in 2012?
Just finished watching the movie 2012. I thought that it was good, unbelievable but good. The computer generation is very good.