2012 (2009)

Directed by: Roland Emmerich

Starring: John Cusack

*1/2

That's Santa Monica there in the picture getting destroyed. Oh, spoiler alert. Sorry.

I hope that its time for a break from the disaster movie because after watching Roland Emmerich's most recent of said genre, 2012, there isn't really much left to be done. I have a complicated relationship with Emmerich and his films because I do think that beneath his urge to destroy the world (on camera), there is a talented filmmaker. Granted I've not seen it in many years, but I've maintained that I'm a fan of Independence Day and The Patriot, while a major rip off of Braveheart, is a good, entertaining and structured film. Its films like The Day After Tomorrow, Godzilla and now 2012 that really make me question why sometimes Emmerich uses his technical skills to provide a backdrop to the characters and their relationships and other times, he just puts people in front of a blue screen and then plays on his computer.

2012 does come somewhat as advertised. It states that the Mayan calender pegs December 21, 2012 as the day the world will end. Sure enough, as that date rolls along, the world... well, it doesn't really end, it does get pretty torn up though but a lot people survive thanks to these massive tank boats the the governement had been secretly building for years in case something bad happened to the world.

Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) and his family are the focus for most of the film. Their struggle as a family, I think, is supposed to be what makes this more than just a disaster film. Instead it just ends up being them running from the end of the world that always happens to be right behind them. First they are driving away as the ground crumbles. Then in a private plane, the move down the runway just as the ground crumbles.... then, after landing and refueling, they race down the runway as the ground crumbles, BUT! aslo have to outrun the huge Yellowstone National Park eruption once they are in the air. I couldn't help but recognize that they were always fortunate to be moving in the right direction with the end of the world behind him. If I can take anything from this film, its that when the world ends, its going to end from west to east... so I know which way to run.

Elsewhere is the scientific aspect of the film, something of which Emmerich does seem to be a fan. Here we're led by Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who, I guess, discovered that the Mayan's were right sometime in 2009 and aided in the preperation for the next three years. Aspects of this portion of the film were actually somewhat interesting. Its entertaining to some extent to see the world just demolished on screen but its somewhat frightening (whether its true or not) the information that explains why the world will end. It appears to be as simple as the planets aligning in a way that only happens every 165 billion years. If that deadline is approaching, it doesn't seem like driving a Prius is gonna do us much good.

The third aspect of the film is of course the choronicle of the worldwide impact of such a cataclismac event. Danny Glover plays the president. Its funny everytime I see a black president in a movie because I say to myself, "how come movies always have black presidents of the US, that'll never happen in real life...". Glover does everything you'd expect a president to do in a film like this, but fortunately, Emmerich is not Michael Bay and as Glover begins his speech broadcasted worldwide, power goes out and the broadcast is cut short. I appreciated that. I can see with my own eyes that the world is ending, I don't need it to stop ending for a few minutes so I can hear the president tell me that its ending. Its very plausible that the power would be out everywhere. It did, however, seem strange that after that, the president was still able to give his daughter (Thandie Newton) a ring on his cell phone and tell her he loves her.

Lastly and what turned out to be most important since so much of what I've discussed prior was essentially a failure in this film, is the special effects. Also, I must say, a failure. Okay, so Avatar did come out in 2009 as well... that had better special effects, but at the same time, with the experience, not just with special effects, but pretty much destroying the world in all his movies, I expected more from Emmerich. He does seem to have a solid vision of how to use special effects and he, most of the time, shows recognizable things being destroyed, which for some reason, is cool but overall, everything looked matted. I can't criticize most films too hard for bad FX but a film like 2012, that doesn't seem to pay much mind to any other aspect of the movie, really needs to put forth a better effort.

The stories in 2012 are extremely weak. The saving grace of mankind makes such little sense, I really do wish everyone just died and the biggest disappointment was that I didn't spend the two hours and forty minutes being entertained. 2012 is a pretty bad movie unfortunately but perhaps I let my expectations get too high as I'd heard that at least came as advertised and for that, it was good. Essentially, Emmerich destroyed the world for about an hour, the rest of the time, we were forced to sit through bad acting, horrible story lines, overly emotional speeches, inconsistent relationships and Woody Harrelson acting like a pedophile profit who knew what was going to happen, but you don't want to get to close to ask him because he really looked like he might take your child and run.