2012

Let me first say how much I respected the trailer for 2012. The trailer that was shown in theaters at least. It had very little talking and gave very little information, aside from the fact that Earth would be destroyed in many ways. The trailer for 2012 was practically just a montage of CGI fueled mass destruction, the majority of which was focused on Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) narrowly escaping the collapse of LA in an airplane. That trailer was one of the most honest ones I have ever seen.

That being said, 2012 fully delivers as a disaster movie. The destruction of LA and Yellowstone Park are some of the best special effects I have ever seen. The scenes are also intense and exciting. There are many other scenes of destruction, all of which are done well, but I feel LA and Yellowstone are the crowning achievements of this film. Normally, like with director Roland Emmerich’s other disaster film The Day After Tomorrow, I can tolerate a movie with excellent action/special effects even if the plot/characters are ridiculous. However, I am happy to report that with 2012 I didn’t have to just tolerate the story because it was actually not bad.

The plot follows the normal rag tag group of survivors (mainly a split family) as they escape disaster after disaster trying to reach China; where humanity’s salvation depends on giant arks that would embarrass the Titanic. There is plenty of interesting yet disposable side characters, ranging from kooky conspiracy nut (Woody Harrelson) to pure hearted geologist (Chiwetel Ejiofor). The movie stays simple in terms of plot, which works because lets face it, if Earth were crumbling survival would be the only task at hand. There’s some light thematic material, which basically boils down to “do the right thing always” but it’s handled decent enough.

Roland Emmerich is, and will likely always be, a B movie director with A level spectacle. Sometimes he goes below the grade (the embarrassing 10,000B.C.) and sometimes he goes above (the semi-masterpiece The Patriot). With 2012, Emmerich has crafted a B movie that spits on all other B movies of its ilk.

Release date: November 2009

Devon says: B+