Special effects can't save movie from disaster

“2012”
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Rating: 1 star (out of 4 stars)

“2012” doesn’t match up to director Roland Emmerich’s past disaster movies such as “Independence Day” or “The Day After Tomorrow.” It is just another tale of destruction that audiences have seen before.

One pleasant surprise the performances of the cast, who consists of John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Woody Harrelson and Danny Glover.  Harrelson plays a crazed conspiracy theorist that brings some comic relief to the movie. Also, Zlatko Buric is unintentionally hilarious as a Russian billionaire who, like many of the world’s wealthiest people, knew about the impending apocalypse and made extremely expensive preparations to survive.

Another redeeming grace is the movie’s special effects. The CGI effects leave the audience unable to breathe or blink for minutes at a time as cities such as Las Vegas are engulfed in water. Emmerich does an incredible job and makes every other disaster movie look like it had a $20 budget. This will definitely be something to show off on a new Blu-ray player and home theater. Unfortunately, the compliments end there.

In the movie, Jackson (Cusack’s character), a failed writer and husband, is trying to maintain a bond with his ex-wife and their two young children. Tom McCarthy (Kate’s new boyfriend), apparently took a few flying lessons in his spare time. Never has a hobby become handier.  The impeccable timing of Curtis as he narrowly escapes death over and over becomes tiresome. He and his family avoid near-death situations ranging from a volcano eruption at Yellowstone Park to Los Angeles being sucked into the ocean. They dodge falling buildings, escape the ground vanishing beneath them, and fly a plane around every obstacle thrown at them. It was as if they were running through the rain dodging every raindrop that fell.

The attempt to add some poorly written emotion into this disaster film was a mistake. There are too many random characters to care about including a jazz musician, a radio host, a rich Russian, a novelist — the list goes on.  The run time of 158 minutes is almost nap-inducing as the filmmakers could have easily cut out a good portion of the film. The last 40 minutes test the viewer’s patience as the film starts taking itself too seriously. At times it feels as though “2012” might not actually end until 2012.

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1 comments

Michelle

Wed Nov 18 2009 09:23

I'm happy to cross off another action movie from the holiday list of "must-see" movies. Thanks for this exceptionally well written and concise review.

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