2012 is the disaster movie to end all disaster movies

by Ken San Nicolas

Director: Roland Emmerich

Time: 2 hours 35 minutes

Genre: Disaster

Featuring: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt

If there is one thing that director Roland Emmerich knows how to do well, it would be breaking stuff. His past films, "Independence Day" and "Day After Tomorrow" were box office hits because of the gross amount of special effects and action. Too bad Emmerich never learned how to create a sensible story.

"2012" is Emmerich's latest attempt at a disaster film and at face value it is pretty decent. After the opening 30 minutes, the action really starts taking off and never really slows down. Imagine every disaster movie you've ever watched put together in a 2 and a half hour montage -- a disaster highlight reel if you will -- that is what "2012" is. And it's pretty good on that level. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, you name it "2012" has it in spades. Perhaps it is a testament to how far film taste has regressed in the past 20 years that a movie about the end of the world driven solely by scenes of entire cultures being wiped out, can be considered a "blockbuster hit." "2012" certainly fits that mold as it had the opportunity to take a pretty poignant subject yet fell embarrassingly short of hitting the mark.

With the exception of James Cameron's "Titanic" and the Korean blockbuster "Haeundae," few disaster films are able to create an atmosphere and dialogue that help a viewer sympathize with the characters or reflect on the greater theme. Unfortunately, "2012" is no different. The most thought-provoking idea (and also the most amusing part of the film,) is the means by which the survivors of the disasters try to save mankind. So apparently, the Chinese have constructed these ships, "arks" if you will, to ship the upper class of civilization elsewhere in lieu of a global disaster. (Do you see how thin this premise is?) What is interesting about this premise is how does one go about choosing who gets to get on the arks and who is unfortunately left behind? Emmerich throws a pebble into this oceanic idea but never makes a splash. Instead the ripple of emotion and thought we get are from the President's Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser, (played by Oliver Platt) a man directly involved with this decision making process. Considering the fact that Platt's character is very logical and void of emotion in his deductions, that doesn't say much about the plot development of the film.

In a nutshell, "2012" is a great movie if you are willing to pay $8.00 to see 2 and a half hours worth of people dying due to the most improbable of apocalyptic disasters (So this aircraft carrier just so happens to fall right on the White House? Believable.) It is also a great movie if you can backup the probability of one family having the character traits and sheer luck required to last through these disasters (so this guy just so happens to know how to fly a plane and just so happens to be really good at dodging falling buildings? Believable.) Emmerich's "disasterpiece" (you heard it here first) does all that and makes it look really good too.

But if you are looking for anything that resembles common sense or logic, you might be better off tossing a ball against the wall -- "2012" is completely void of it.

3 out of 5 stars