2012 review

Witness the biggest, craziest and possibly most entertaining disaster picture ever made. Co-writer-director Roland Emmerich the creator of such mega destruction blockbusters as "Independence Day", "Godzilla" and "The Day After Tomorrow" has for my money hit the nail on the head by forgoing most seriousness for melodrama and over the top scenes of massive Earth annihilation. In fact I'd say this is his best picture since his Revolutionary war, Mel Gibson film "The Patriot" and his best paced movie to date. Further more his addition of stronger actors like John Cusack, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover, Oliver Platt, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Woody Harrelson kind of add to the ridiculous, cartoony sci-fi fun of it all.

But let me stress a couple of very important things. First off this movie is in no way a reflection of what will happen in 2012, just an entertaining piece of a huge maybe, if anything that would happen hype machine. Second is that Emmerich has now cemented himself as the Sam Raimi of the disaster film genre. Where before he would go as bug nuts as he wanted and attempted to make a serious picture with serious tones, here he just cuts loose and has fun. Sure there are sub-plots there to put on those old heartstrings and make you care about humanity (as he does have a lot of humanity in his pictures unlike Michael Bay), but the main set of characters make you like or simply enjoy them because they are who they are. Like John Cusack! He's snarky and fun to watch on screen in general so throwing him in a scene out running an erupting volcano is perfection! Chiwetel Ejiofor is still one of my favorite actors to watch because no matter what he's in he will act the SHIT out of it, just because he can. So why not pair him up with Thandie Newton and give him to 'emotional' speeches about peoples right to fight for their survival?

So with all that said, yes the script and dialogue is often hokey. Mainly in the first half of the film. When we reach the second half which is when things really change into (in my opinion) a much more original and entertaining concept, you've got lots of ethos, but it works. The budget for this mega picture is idea mega at $250 million... let that settle a second. However every cent is seen on screen. This ain't no cheap looking flick like "Spider-Man 3". And there are some scenes in here that really question whether it was CGI or practical effects or a mix of both. And this is especially important after Emmerich's last picture "10,000 BC" which is definitely the worst in his filmography on just about every level, including some very poor CGI. In "2012" though he more than makes up for it and provides sequence after sequence of glowing chaos that we're allowed to savor.

As I watched "2012" I also realized how much better of an overall action sci-fi picture is was than "Transformers 2". Mainly because this wasn't taking itself to deadly serious and mixing it with some pretty lackluster jokes. And I'm saying this after 'enjoying' that film. But all negative thoughts aside "2012" is about as great of an adventure picture of this size can get without being great. Had it's script been better I'd say it would've been great. In any case see it on the biggest screen, with the loudest sound system you can. See it and laugh and be marveled by immense, German engineered disaster and fun.

"2012" *** 1/2 out of ****