2012 - The Review

Let me start off by saying that I'm giving this movie a "Theatre" rating (see the bottom of the page for the rating scale definitions), if for no other reason then the special effects.  I feel that all of the doomsday, end-of-the-world movies (i.e. The Day After Tomorrow) tend to have very intense, epic imagery that deserves to be seen on the big screen, and this one does not fail in that category.  Now, in the commercials the only person you really see is John Cusack, but it's got a really interesting cast besides him, including a conspiracy-theory lunatic played by Woody Harrelson, with some strange love of pickles.  The movie itself definitely was one of those edge-of-your-seat type movies, while you anxiously watch to see if they can get past the giant smoke cloud or off the ground before they get sucked into the molten hot magma filled canyons forming throughout Pasadena (Cali, not Maryland).  Even though in the back of your mind you're thinking, "Of course they make it, they're the leading characters!"  Logic never plays a part during these intense moments, if done well, which these were.

 

I also really liked their estimation of how the end of the world would be handled by the government, if it had enough advance warning, which it did in this case. . . sort of.  From selling off seats of safety, to screwing over the laborers that built the ships of salvation, I feel that they accurately portrayed the greedy elitist attitude of some of the people in charge of such a project, while balancing with the idealistic hope of the martyrs that such a situation would hopefully be saved by (not that I feel they need to die, just the fact that some people are idealistic and humanitarians is enough).

 

Of course the end is chock-full of mishaps and near-catastrophes, that somehow all are connected to the main (and important side) characters, as you would expect.  The only criticism I have is that it seemed like a bit much.  I mean, ok, I get that there are going to be problems that heighten the drama at the end, making the result more victorious, but at a certain point even I was noticing how it seemed like a bit much.  I remember thinking "Wow, with all of these things going wrong, I'd sure wish I was in one of the 4-5 other ships that John Cusack wasn't in!"  I won't get into all the goings on, but let's just say that it was a bit much to have it all happen to only one of the ships.  Sure, some of them were chain reactions, but still. 

 

All in all, if that's the only thing I can say seemed a bit much (and please don't come back with anything about how the images of destruction were over the top.  That's what these films are all about, so you have to be impressed with them, rather than criticize them. . . unless they're done poorly, then you can criticize the shit out of them.  But these were done really, really well so we'll just move on), then I have to say it was a pretty good movie all around and I hope you all enjoy it!!