Courtesy of Columbia Pictures
It’s the year 2012 and the sky is falling. In just 158 minutes this movie shows earthquakes, tsunamis, collapsing cities, volcanoes, new and rekindled romance, and people running like lemmings running off a cliff. Director Rolland Emmerich even throws a in government conspiracy to boot.
The movie “2012” is about the end of the world as we know it, which comes off as a total surprise to nearly the entire population. However, elite government officials and the extremely wealthy were informed of the impending disaster years ago and were the only people given a chance for survival.
The movie revolves around so many characters in constant life-or-death situations that it hardly gives you a chance to feel anything for the divorced couple of Jackson and Kate Curtis, played by John Cusack and Amanda Peet, and their family.
Primarily about a large CG budget and not plot, this movie takes the audience on a whirlwind tour of stunning visuals. The Washington Monument collapsing and the Himalayas being engulfed in water are just mere seconds in a movie completely dominated by destruction. While the movie doesn’t pull at your heart stings as billions die, it does give you something spectacular to look at. And isn’t that what all good blockbusters should do? It’s not like we ever expect Vin Diesel to make us cry, we just want to see him blow stuff up.
Throughout the movie you watch Jackson, Kate and their two children (who couldn’t act their way out of a paper bag) run from the brink of swallowing craters, flying balls of flame, tsunamis and collapsing buildings. They are never more than a breath away from death and it doesn’t allow the viewer a chance to collect themselves as the film careens from one death-defying moment to the next.
The movie does have a few gems, however, like Woody Harrelson’s character Charles Frost, a deranged pirate-radio broadcaster that knew what was coming all along. The writers even decided to throw in a few one-liners that break the tension and occasionally allow the viewer a short laugh before they are once again being pushed to the edge of their seats.
In the end, “2012″ just leaves you feeling upset. Even though the movie introduces giant arks to save a select few in the human population, they aren’t enough to keep this movie afloat.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Halie Noble at Halie.noble@colorado.edu.
