Roland Emmerich likes imagining catastrophies. He already sent aliens to blow us up in Independence Day, a giant lizard to stomp us in Godzilla, and he unleashed major climate change in The Day After Tomorrow. Now he's taking inspiration from ancient Mayan history, which predicted that the world would come to an end in 2012. This will occur through volcanic eruptions, typhoons and glaciers. And John Cusack will be the taxi driver who faces it in our stead. Available on DVD in 2013.
To say that 2012 is the 'mother of all disaster movies' would be both a true statement and an insult to disaster movies. It cannot be denied that for wholesale destruction and death count this film has it all, bar the actual planet exploding like Alderaan being hit by the Death Star. But in doing so, 2012 teaches the viewer that gluttony is not a healthy virtue by any account.
So the end of the world occurs in the year 2012, just as the Mayans predicted. During this event, an Ordinary White American Divorced Family Man (played by John Cusack) fights to save his family whilst navigating a series 'talking' scenes (mostly people crying into telephones) which link one stupendous, special effects-riddled, scientifically-implausible, action sequence after another. Danny Glover turns up as the President of the USA.
It's hard to put a finger on what hurts this film the most: the fact that, at an unrelenting 158 minutes, your eyes actually get tired of seeing things blow up and irritating people perish, or that the film only serves up the same special effects and migraine-inducing sound design you've seen and heard before in far better movies, just cranked a few notches higher.
2012 definitely delivers what it promises: mass-death, destruction, mayhem, all white-washed into PG-13 entertainment. Anybody who enjoys this particular genre will get their money's worth but those with a nose for plausibility may find themselves weeping into their popcorn by the end.
By Rajneel Singh, Flicks.co.nz
Emmerich blows CGI sh*t up in spectacular yet yawn-inducing fashion in this bloated corpse of a movie in which only Woody Harrelson escapes with his reputation intact. The plot holes are bigger than the yawning CGI chasms the rip apart US cities. If you like the chase-escape-chase-escape predictability of movies like 'The Fugitive' and 'Indy 4' then you'll like this popcorn muncher - but there's nothing new and not much to enjoy. The script, dialogue, direction and acting bar Woody) are flat as a wrecked cityscape and other than state of the art CGI animation and beautifully rendered destruction this has nothing to offer save multiple moments of "no way did he escape... again!" Who thought armageddon would be this dull?
Would have been a much better film if there wasnt that dodgy russian accents and John Cusack as the lead alright special effects lets hope the real 2012 isnt like this
I really like the part Woody Harrelson plays in this movie as the mad radio broadcaster predicting the end of the world.Enjoy the movie for what it is a popcorn munchin action movie. If you take the movie on its acting and plot thats got more holes than swiss cheese then yes you will be diappointed but if you take it for what it is another end of the world scenario with some great special effects and bad russian accents thrown in :)
this movie is so cool im going to kepet i like the tsnamei and the earthqauke also the volcano a raptions
pota kau!
The mother of all disaster movies (and the father, and the extended family) spends half an hour on ominous set-up scenes (scientists warn, strange events occur, prophets rant and of course a family is introduced) and then unleashes two hours of cataclysmic special events hammering the Earth relentlessly.
The film is dumber than a bag of hammers, of course, but by crikey it doesn't hold anything back.
Fundamentally terrible, but almost irresistibly entertaining. Its horrors get a tad monotonous in the mid-section, but it’s still a value-for-money hoot.
Eye-popping special effects ensure that this movie will be a smash hit, and while it's entertaining for most of its excessive running time, the cheesy script fails to live up to the grandeur of the physical production.
If you leave your brain at the door, and I mean LEAVE IT THERE, and grab a jumbo popcorn, this disaster movie’s CGI may entertain.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 12th Nov 2009.
Release date: November 12th 2009.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
