Director Roland Emmerich returns to the summer popcorn fare that made him famous with films like Independence Day, Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow. This time, he brings his latest entry into the holiday movie season with 2012.
The film revolves around the long-perpetuated myth that the Mayan civilization predicted the end of the world to occur on Dec. 21, 2012, due to the very rare phenomenon that will actually occur on that day: an exact alignment of every planet in our solar system. John Cusack stars as Jackson Curtis, a no-name author and divorced father. In the midst of trying to get his family to safety, he gets caught in the middle of a conspiracy by the world’s governments to hide their knowledge of the Earth’s rapid decay set to occur on the infamous date that will result in widespread catastrophe and billions of deaths.
Unlike most of Emmerich’s films, the supporting characters in 2012 are somewhat strong and offer a reason, small as it may be, to remain interested in the human aspect of the film. That said, Emmerich has in some ways raised the bar yet again for the “disaster porn” genre with a film that delivers some of the richest visual effects seen this year. It’s hard to call it ground-breaking by any means, but the $200 million+ budget definitely shows.
The bright side is that with more believably-unbelievable effects and a much stronger cast, Emmerich has certainly produced a film more entertaining than his last two entries (The Day After Tomorrow and 10,000 B.C.). And while one need not compare any film to the waste of time that was Godzilla, this film is arguably his best since (though still many leagues below) Independence Day.
The downside: aside from a much larger canvas and updated visuals, 2012 doesn’t offer anything more than a couple of hours of escapism, and the second act will leave most wondering when the payoff is coming. The film tends to overstay its welcome with a runtime over 150 minutes and several more-than-laughable death scenes, but it does its job in providing fun, yet instantly forgettable eye candy.
