US Movie Review: 2012 (2009)

OK, apparently I'm the last person in the world who saw 2012...  I missed it in the theaters but I caught it on DVD recently.

I wasn't particularly looking forward to this film because I thought it'd be a rehash of every other global disaster movie we've seen recently...  from "Japan is Sinking" to "The Day After Tomorrow"...     well it is quite similar... except since this one is newer, you get more special effects, which means more buildings falling, more explosions, more volcanos and more giant crevasses always popping up 0.1 seconds after our heroes manage to pass through.

Actually that's one of my problems with this film... its not just a LITTLE over the top... its so over the top it becomes more of a parody than anything else.   (I could easily imagine the characters saying "ok, we need to take off,  cue the collapsing run-way that opens into a giant crack that our plane barely manages to lift out of before almost hitting some famous buildings too...")  :-P

This over-done-ness is perhaps best embodied in this very image, which also appears in the movie:

Its not just enough to have the White House get hit by a giant tsunami...  or to have an aircraft carrier get hit capsized by a giant wave... they have to have the tsunami flip the aircraft carrier over on top of the White House! (how's that for bad timing!)  ... forget the fact  that you are supposed to be a few hundred miles away from the Ocean.... 

For a movie focused on geography, you think their attention to detail would be a little bit better, but apparently Yellowstone park is somewhere where LA people head to for quick camping trips (its actually 1000+ miles away!)   oh, and somehow  Woody Harrelson's magic radio program reaches the entire western US...

anyway, you have to unplug your brain from such details... or wondering why anyone with a half decent sail boat in the open ocean wouldn't also be fine... John Cusack does a good job with the limited material.  It has a few too many lame "lets discuss humanity" and "oh no, my family is dead" acting exercises in there....   but not enough to ruin the film.

I give it a 6/10 for popcorn thrill ride entertainment only.