Let’s get this straight from the very beginning: You don’t go to a Roland Emmerich thriller looking for great characters, dialogue, or plot, because all of those are filled with holes. You go for what he fills those holes with: amazing action and special effects sequences. And the formula holds true in his latest Earth-ending epic, “2012.”
It’s appropriate that the title of the movie is a marker of time, because the entire movie is a series of races against time. Much of the film moves at a frantic pace, as the deadliest of deadlines are set by Mother Nature and narrowly averted by our intrepid group of Darwinistic darlings, determined to survive against all odds.
Granted, these characters serve only to expedite the action, but the action is spectacular. In the chase scenes, our heroes aren’t running from the bad guys — they’re literally running, driving, and flying just inches away from certain death at the hands of Earth’s apocalypse. Never mind that these chases bend the laws of physics to the point of impossibility, because they look really, really cool.
They play against Emmerich’s latest “end of the world” scenario, which is triggered by solar radiation superheating the inner reaches of Earth’s crust, causing cataclysmic events to occur and essentially dooming the planet and its occupants. Of course, with three years’ warning, the governments of the world have clandestinely conceived a plan to keep the species alive — but their scheme only ensures the survival of the richest, which sets up our “everyman’s” quest to keep his family alive.
As he does so well, John Cusack plays that everyman. This time, it’s Jackson Curtis, a failed novelist who now drives a limo for a wealthy Russian businessman and his bratty kids. Meanwhile, he’s become a pariah to his own children, who have gravitated toward their mother’s new (and much more successful) flame. When he takes his kids on an uncomfortable trip to Yellowstone National Park, he stumbles across evidence of geological trouble and an apparent government cover-up. He also comes across a whacked-out conspiracy theorist (played a little too convincingly by Woody Harrelson), who knows not only about the end of the world, but about a secret plan to put people on “ships” to save the species.
Back home in Southern California, he realizes that an unprecedented swarm of earthquakes is no coincidence, so he gathers up the kids, along with ex-wife Amanda Peet and her new boyfriend, and the race is on — they must find out the secret of the “ships,” all the while staying half a step ahead of the steadily natural disasters.
The scenes of destruction are spectacular, as many of the world’s iconic structures — yes, including Emmerich’s favorite target, the White House — meet their untimely ends. And as long as Emmerich keeps the special effects coming, the movie rolls along nicely. It only gets bogged down in subplots that deal with the surviving characters finding ways to say goodbye to their loved ones.
Ultimately, with a runtime of more than two and a half hours, a sense of fatigue sets in toward the end of “2012,” but there are more than enough thrills packed into the movie to make that forgiveable. Emmerich set out to make the mother of all apocalyptic popcorn movies… and he succeeded.
sarfaraazmohammed
November 13th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
show the film of 2012
Sabrina Renfroe
November 14th, 2009 at 7:56 am
How do you no that the world will end in 2012? You people have pridicted it before and its never happened so I don’t know what too say. Please reply to me . Somebody.
dustin
November 15th, 2009 at 11:30 am
THis movie was great idc if there were a lot of questions this was amzing so what if they survived out of all slim chances it can happen its a movie and anything is possible for god sakes i was reading people who hated independence day which was great what is with these people the specal affects were amazing and i think 2012 was amazing and now is my favorite movie
dustin
November 15th, 2009 at 11:32 am
i agree to what THIS ARTICLE SAYS COMPLETELY