2012: Movie Review (2009)

By our guest blogger, Paul M. Crawford

Movie Review

"2012"

Directed by Roland Emmerich, written by Emmerich and Harold Kloser, 158 minutes, rated PG-13.

Director Roland "Destroy The World" Emmerich returns with his latest global disaster '"2012," which opened this weekend. Having seen the film, my first impressions lead me to believe that, although many people will see this film due to the immense advertising campaign it received, few people will actually enjoy this movie.

Why, you ask?

First off, there is nothing in the movie that is considerably ground-breaking or new to most audiences that they haven't seen before. Mr. Emmerich ("The Day After Tomorrow," "Independence Day," and "Godzilla") has been hiding in the blockbuster age of the '90s and refuses to replace his obvious delight of blowing things up and destroying global landmarks for other movie essentials like, say, a story. When you peel back the layers of his movies, you'll always find the same thing--a dislike of authority and an easy way to make money off of people's irrational fears.

"2012" was everything you would expect if you caught the trailers--destruction, and lots of it! The central story deals with a dysfunctional family: The father (played by John Cusack) is divorced and a single parent, the kids hate the father, and so on. This, again, is a constant theme for doomsday director, Emmerich.

As the film's events begin to unfold, we learn that the government has been withholding information from the public (surprise, surprise) about the end of days, and that the rich and famous have paid for their own safe keeping when the end does happen. The remainder of the film becomes political and socially themed as everyone and their mother tries to sacrifice themselves at some point to save the others in the mutli-cultural group of "survivors."

The saving grace of "2012" is the CGI effects of doom. By all counts, this is a movie best seen in a theater since your television will not be able to show you just how epic in size it is. Despite a few ill-blended 3-D compositings, the chaos is believable and enthralling for about the first hour--until finally you realize you are finding yourself wishing something would NOT explode for once and maybe the characters could stop arguing for a moment.

Overall, if you are huge fan of the '90s and love Roland Emmerich, "2012" is for you--and only you. The rest of the audience is there because giant billboards have been telling them for months that they NEED to go see it.

I give "2012" a 2.5 stars out of 5. It was a landslide of special effects and dazzle, but I cannot help how in only a few short years, this movie will be collecting dust on the shelves of Wal-Mart, since the movie will become void on the first day of 2013.

Grade: C


View the trailer for "2012" here: