2012 (2009)

So with all of the natural disasters, civil unrest and general sense of impending doom going on in the world right now you have to wonder, were those mayans really onto something when they predicted that the world was going to end in 2012. Apocalyptic movies are nothing new, in fact most action movies revolve around some sort of doomsday plot with a hero desperately trying to save the world.

Roland Emmerich's 2012 revolves around the mayan theory that the world will end in 2012 when the planet's align and the sun melts the core of the earth, causing the Earth's crust to destabilise. The government's of the world have built arks(like what Noah had... think big people boats) to save as many people as possible(around only 400,000). Most people remain unaware of all of this while a select few prepare to escape the apocalypse. Meanwhile writer Jackson Curtis(John Cusack, what were you thinking?) becomes aware of this plan and will do anything to keep his family safe.

2012 is predictable, you know how it'll end the moment it begins. It feels like it's constantly shifting to and from natural disaster scenes to cliched 'emotional farewell' scenes. I think the line 'we're not going to make it' is repeated at least 20 times. And the acting, oh why do they have such stereotypical characters, played terribly (especially Woody Harrelson's over the top conspiracy theorist). They're all just so annoying, don't even get me started on the terrible Russian accents...

Why do people like movies like this? It seemed to do ok at the box office. People like stupid conspiracy theories(just look at the Da Vinci Code or google 2012). People also like special effects where stuff gets broken and buildings fall down. I found that the larger scale effects were more convincing than the smaller ones, they have this fakeness(it's the actors, they either don't panic or they panic too much). It's a good marriage between the conspiracies and special effects that really sucked the viewers into this black hole of a bad movie. I found the constant references to religion kind of frustrating as well, is this the director's way of saying we should all repent (dramatic voice) THE END IS NIGH!

It did have a small effect on me though but I think that's because of the context I bring to the table. The real life footage you see of Japan is just so much more frightening and when watching 2012 now, you can't help but compare situations. They wouldn't be able to release a movie like this now under the circumstances. And what's slightly unnerving is all these predictions of giant earthquakes in California on the San Andreas fault line.

So you can probably tell I didn't like 2012. Can you blame me? There wasn't much to like about it. The last line of this is a shocker too 'no more pull-ups' (as in those things kids wear at night so they don't wet the bed)... yeah i think that just about summarises my viewing experience.

Oh and by the way, you can comment, it has been enabled. Don't be shy, (seductive voice) you know you want to.

So long and good night.