Saturday, December 05, 2009

A review of "2012 [Theatrical Release]"

by Roland Emmerich

I agree with the other excellent reviews on allconsuming. Despite that, I don’t think 2012 is “not worth consuming”; I give it a wishy-washy rating.

The movie starts out with some scientists discovering that neutrinos from a large solar flare have “mutated” and begun “acting like microwaves” to heat up the earth’s core. Thus, you are given an idea of the quality of the movie from the get-go.

We follow a family as they manage to stay just inches ahead of disaster, in various vehicles: limo, RV, small plane, large plane, giant ship. Added to the mix is a smattering of ethical dilemma about who gets to be saved when the world ends, and some tear-jerking moments when various arbitrarily introduced characters bid a fond farewell to their loved ones.

So, it’s a mediocre movie, but despite that, I found it mildly entertaining, although not really what I want from an end-of-the-world movie (it’s not the end of the world when a ton of people survive). To give you an idea, as a disaster movie, it’s slightly better than the 2008 remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still and not as good as Cloverfield (I like my weird monsters).

Favorite memorable quote:

Noah Curtis: Woah, that’s a big plane.

Yuri Karpov: It’s Russian.

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