2012
2012 (2009) – I think people judge these movies very unfairly. It surprises me when a movie like 2012 comes along and it’s ripped apart before it’s even released. “This movie’s gonna blow, it’s two and a half hours of things blowing up.” I have to play back the sentence in my mind and figure out what was negative about that concept. These movies are meant to be fun, and usually nothing more than that. I say “usually” because sometimes you get a movie that has absolutely no other reason to exist than to make things explode and momentarily lower your IQ (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Single-Disc Edition) is out now. Fun movie.) but occasionally you get something like 2012, which not only offers the calculated mayhem that fans of the action genre desire, but it also offers a surprisingly deep philosophical undertone. Go figure, right? The movie opens with a fifteen minute montage that sets up the events that will eventually transpire on 2012, and gives us a look at the backroom dealings that occur in the wake of this disturbing discovery concerning the fate of humanity. Once that’s over with, the movie picks up rather quickly, introducing us to the main character, Jackson Curtis, his more-than-dysfunctional family and a grab bag of supporting characters. After a botched camping trip, things kick off rather quickly. What follows are two hours of absolute chaos. The CG in this movie is astounding, and I cannot stress this enough. The action is relentless, creative, and satisfying on the whole. The LA sequence alone will have you smiling, then you will realize you still have a lot more movie to go, and it never disappoints. The pacing is excellent in this regard. I was in awe the entire way through. That’s the bottom line: If you love action movies or a good old fashioned thrill ride, the disaster sequences alone are worth the price of admission (unless you’re an astrophysicist, in which case you might be crossing your arms and groaning at this film all the way through). But what I liked the most about this film was its underlying religious theme. People might be quick to pick up on the major references to this, such as (POSSIBLE SPOILER, though it’s in the trailer): the crack forming between Adam and God on Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” at the Sistine Chapel, the destruction of Christ the Redeemer, Vatican City, and the Buddhist temple. With these and other biblical references that you will miss if you blink, Emmerich seems to postulate a world in which you don’t need God for miracles, and where everyone is back on even ground again. Another theme that Emmerich sets up is the social borders that divide us more than we think. In a world that is coming to an end, it’s not the strong who survive, only the smartest and the wealthiest. The film argues against utilitarianism on several fronts, going so far as to say that to embrace such a concept to an outrageous extent, even to save mankind, would result in a race of humans deprived of its humanity. Now, I could be wrong. I’m not saying that my interpretation of the movie is spot on, but the movie did make me think, and that’s what I found remarkable returning home from watching a film in which I thought I was just going to watch things blow up for two hours. I walked in knowing that no one makes disaster movies better than Roland Emmerich, but I ended up watching something that entertained me immensely, made me think, and spurred on a very long conversation between my friends and I. THAT’S how a movie more than earns the price of admission. — by Annihilatrix1138
2012 (2009) – Now this is how you destroy the world. Roland Emmerich’s 2012 pounces on a Nostradamus-style loophole in the Mayan calendar and rams the apocalypse through it, gleefully conjuring up an enormous amount of Saturday-matinee fun in the process. A scientist (Chiwetel Ejiofor) detects shifting continental plates and sun flares and realizes that this foretells the imminent destruction of the planet. Just as the molten lava is about to hit the fan, a novelist (John Cusack) takes his kids on a trip to Yellowstone; later he’ll hook up with his ex (Amanda Peet) and her new boyfriend (Tom McCarthy) in a global journey toward safety. If there is any safety. The suitably hair-raising plot lines are punctuated–frequently, people, frequently–by visions of mayhem around the globe: the Vatican falls over, the White House is clobbered (Emmerich’s Independence Day was not enough on that score), and the California coastline dives into the Pacific Ocean. Unlike other action directors we could name, Emmerich actually understands how to let you see and drink in these vast special-effects vistas–and they are incredible. He also honors the old Irwin Allen disaster-movie tradition by actually shelling out for good actors. Cusack and Ejiofor are convincing even in the cheesiest material; toss in Danny Glover (the U.S. president), Woody Harrelson (a nut-bar conspiracy-theorizing radio host), Thandie Newton, and Oliver Platt, and you’ve got a very watchable batch of people. Emmerich hasn’t developed an ear for dialogue, even at this stage in his career, and the final act goes on a bit too long. This is a very silly movie, but if you’ve got a weakness for B-movie energy and hairbreadth escapes, 2012 delivers quite a bit of both. –Robert Horton
2012 (2009)
- Actors: John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Danny Glover, Woody Harrelson, Tom McCarthy
- Directors: Roland Emmerich
- Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
- Language: English
- Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called “region-free” DVD players. For more information on RCE - Number of discs: 1
- Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
- Studio: Sony Pictures
- DVD Release Date: March 2, 2010
- Run Time: 158 minutes
