Cinema Thirst: 2012 Review

2012. One of the most well known and infamous dates in our lifetime. The Mayans, as well as other ancient cultures predicted that on December 21st, 2012, some sort of event would take place that would shape the future of our planet.

Is it the destruction of all life on Earth or just another day in our history, no different then December 21st, 2009? No one truly knows, but considering the amount of popularity and infamy this day has across the globe, movies and other entertainment mediums were a guarantee.

Low budget films like 'Doomsday: 2012' have come and gone, but Roland Emmerich's depiction of 2012 is the top of the cake no doubt. The film stars quite a few big timers such as John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Danny Glover, and Woody Harrelson to name but a few as the world struggles to find any method of survival against the impending doom.
Global-wide destruction of catastrophic proportions is tearing the world apart as fault lines shift, California sinks into the Pacific Ocean, and Mega-tsunamis strike every coastline.

As far as the acting is concerned, it's a high-budget blockbuster so don't be expecting Academy Award winning performances. John Cusack, Danny Glover, and Chiwetel Ejiofor are the ones who I believe to have the best performances. John Cusack plays a father of two children and world famous author who has divorced from his wife (played by Amanda Peet) as he struggles to be a good father. His performance in most of the film is very well done except for the occasional stupid line but I don't blame that on Cusack's acting, but rather the sometimes faulty script. There are a lot of lines in the movie that really didn't need to be in there which served as comic relief and in my opinion, a movie about the end of the world isn't exactly supposed to be funny.

Thankfully, the comic relief characters are kept to a minimum and one of them (people who have seen this will know who I'm talking about) is killed off rather quickly which I was quite happy about. It's hard to call the premise of this moviefar-fetched because really, no one knows what is going to occur in 2012 and if you're going to make a motion picture about the end of the world, you need to show it ending.

One thing I rather enjoyed is that one of the events in the movie is actually based on scientific fact and is centered around the super volcano residing in Yellowstone National Park right now.

But let's face it, this movie's biggest selling factor is the special effects without a doubt and as a disaster movie, trust me it is the best in the genre as far as on-screen destruction is concerned and considering this film had a budget of over 200 million dollars, you can only expect the effects to bemind-blowing and I really wouldn't be surprised if 2012 was nominated for best special effects at the next Academy Awards. Very few moments in the film looked unrealistic except for the occasional flaw here and there. Did I enjoy this movie? Yes I did, very much in fact.

If you are willing to suspend your disbelief and leave your brain outside of the theater, you will definitely enjoy this film.

2012 has received mixed reviews from critics saying the premise was "unrealistic" and the acting was "terrible" but really people, you go to a disaster movie to be entertained and this film does exactly that. Just don't be expecting the next movie of the year.

7 / 10

12/09/09 Colton West