2012 Movie Review

2012 (2009)

Rent 2012 on Amazon Video
Written by: Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser
Directed by: Roland Emmerich
Starring: John Cusack, Thandie Newton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Tom McCarthy, Woody Harrelson, Danny Glover
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer

Plot
A frustrated writer struggles to keep his family alive when a series of global catastrophes threatens to annihilate mankind.

Verdict
It's a big, indulgent action movie, which is Emmerich's wheelhouse, but he's done it better in other movies. This is a popcorn movie that's an easy watch except that for it being long, needlessly so.  The destruction loses it's impact because there's just so much of it that it no longer holds shock value. It's a fun disaster movie provided the run time doesn't scare you off.
It depends.

Review
Emmerich is most famous for Independence Day, and 2012 has a lot of similarities though it always feels lesser than. Both use destruction of well known landmarks to their benefit, but the White House scene in Independence Day is more iconic. While 2012  has nothing on that scale, it has the destruction of so many landmarks that a single one just doesn't stand out. The movie is all about excess. I remember when this movie came out, the Mayan calendar was a semi-big deal. The movie definitely had timing and fear mongering on its side.

Don't worry, they survive.

This jumps right into the plot with solar flares that are heating Earth;s core. I don't know if science corroborates the possibility, but it works to propel the plot. One man realizes the implications but no one will believe him until he finally convinces someone and we head to the president. Normally this person would be the protagonist, perhaps attempting to save the world, but our protagonist is an author that just wants to save his family.

This movie may have the dumbest exposition I've ever seen. It's so bad it's actually worth seeing in it's animated glory. Woody Harrelson is a supposed crazy hack that believes the world will end, yet he had the foresight to created an animated video just in case anyone was bold enough to not only believe him but enter his trailer. The protagonist played by Cusack is that man.

John Cusack plays the protagonist... whatever his name is.

 Geological disasters are a great concept for an action movie, but Cusack never felt right in the part. I'm not advocating for a remake with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, but I'd probably watch it.

This movie is just too long and there are too many characters. It's very similar to Independence Day, with multiple groups in varying places, but this doens't manage to engender any interest in them. This certainly goes for over the top, and while that can be fun, this was never as fun as it should be. It also lacks attention to detail. A car is driving over the road as it cracks and splits, but the car isn't bouncing.

The Earth is crumbling, oh no.

California slides into the ocean, but this movie makes you roll your eyes with a combination of improbably and impossible. There are plenty of fun visuals, but the characters have no foundation. It's not a bad thing depending on how the movie plays that, but 2012 misses the mark. A large part of that is Cusack. He just doesn't fit.

There's an interesting sub plot about modern arks to survive the disaster but it's a mistake to introduce them when the movie is already so long. They could have saved it for the sequel.

I found myself frequently wondering why this is so long. This is too much, yet not enough. This doesn't have a standout destruction scene, and it just keeps going trying to overload you with the Earth exploding. This has some thrills, but with the long run time, it's a tough sale.