 From Roland Emmerich, director of The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day, comes the ultimate action-adventure film, exploding with groundbreaking special effects. As the world faces a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions, cities collapse and continents crumble. 2012 brings an end to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors. Starring John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Woody Harrelson and Danny Glover. Storyline: Dr. Adrian Helmsley, part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect on the earth of radiation from unprecedented solar storms, learns that the earth's core is heating up. He warns U.S. President Thomas Wilson that the crust of the earth is becoming unstable and that without proper preparations for saving a fraction of the world's population, the entire race is doomed. Meanwhile, writer Jackson Curtis stumbles on the same information. While the world's leaders race to build "arks" to escape the impending cataclysm, Curtis struggles to find a way to save his family. Meanwhile, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of unprecedented strength wreak havoc around the world. Written by Jim Beaver Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, February 17, 2010 -- The world as we know it will soon come to an end. Reviewing a Disaster movie necessitates a delicate balancing act, unless a reviewer chooses to simply go all Godzilla on the movie and stomp it into oblivion without attempting to compartmentalize what the movie has and wants to offer versus what other pictures of varied genres and purposes have and want to offer. The Godzilla method would seem the du jour approach to a movie like Director Roland Emmerich's latest end-of-days Disaster picture 2012, his biggest and baddest movie yet, loaded with special effects and built around every Disaster movie cliché in the book. Indeed, 2012 isn't really all that different at its core than any run-of-the-mill made-for-television Disaster miniseries -- which are, in fact, disasters of the cinematic kind -- save for the fact that its budget is bigger than the gross domestic products of some small nations and it comes complete with a collection of name actors, most of whom aren't yet past their primes or long since faded into irrelevancy a decade or two prior. The budget, the actors, the skilled director, and even a surprisingly moving -- but not all that deep -- script make 2012 the pinnacle of its genre, a genre that has seemingly become the laughingstock of the film industry considering the epically bad movies that keep popping up in theaters and on video store shelves and television sets. However, Emmerich seems determined to keep the Disaster genre afloat and give it some relevance, and he has indeed made himself into the father of the modern high-dollar Disaster movie, with 2012 being his most audacious effort yet. In the year 2009, Scientist Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor, Redbelt) becomes privy to information that neutrinos emanating from the sun are wrecking havoc on the Earth, causing its core to superheat. Fearful of the imminent natural disasters, Helmsley rushes to speak with Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt, Year One), the White House Chief of Staff and a man with the President's ear. Flash-forward to 2012, and limousine driver and unsuccessful author Jackson Curtis (John Cusack, Con Air) is taking his children to a getaway camping trip to Yellowstone National Park while his ex-wife Kate (Amanda Peet, Identity) works on her burgeoning relationship with plastic surgeon and amateur pilot Gordon Silberman (Tom McCarthy). At Yellowstone, Jackson meets a conspiracy theorist and small-time radio host named Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson, No Country For Old Men) who tells Jackson of the coming doom, allowing the father of two to get a head start on getting out of Dodge and heading for what Frost says is the last safe place on Earth. As Jackson races against time to save his family, he happens upon his wealthiest client, a Russian billionaire (Zlatko Buric) and his twin sons (Alexandre and Philippe Haussmann), his trophy girlfriend (Beatrice Rosen), and his personal pilot (Johann Urb), all of whom are headed to a secret facility that holds the key to mankind's survival. The group escapes death time and again to avoid a disaster that U.S. President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover, Saw) must finally announce to a panicked world that's begun crumbling around every corner. Not as endearing as Independence Day but not as politically-motivated as The Day After Tomorrow and not as lethargic as Godzilla, 2012 may be Emmerich's most well-balanced Disaster movie to date. Of all his pictures, it stands out as easily the most base of them all, where neither alien nor man nor a radioactive creature are the enemies but rather time and mother nature herself, and they prove to be Emmerich's most potent tandem of hostiles yet. Indeed, never before has so much been destroyed on such a grand scale and with such seamless special effects, and never before has so much death, destruction, and sheer chaos been this much fun. After the picture's slow but not sluggish open that introduces most of the film's major players -- the obligatory collection of the scientist, the President, the jerk, the broken family, the rich folks, the trophy girlfriend, and the conspiracy theorist -- 2012 begins a rip-roaring two additional hours of almost nonstop mayhem and special effects but manages to piece together a semblance of a heart and soul and develop its characters to the point that, when one or two of them inevitably kick the bucket, it actually matters and the sense of loss becomes surprisingly palpable. Still, Emmerich makes sure that the picture's emotions and characters live on the periphery where they belong in a movie like this, the director emphasizing the spectacle first and allowing everything else to fall into place as-needed and in the right time and context to achieve maximum effect with minimal interference to the dangers and disasters and visual effects that populate nearly every frame of the movie's second and third acts. 2012 may be mostly about collapsing buildings, flooding cities, and people surviving brushes with death in the middle near-miss after near-miss catastrophes, but it works not because of story -- this is absolutely nothing new, it's just that the picture plays out on an epically large scale -- but because it's been made with an eye towards detail and an insistence on making it bigger and better than anything that's come before it. 2012 is definitely a product of its budget, and every penny of its whopping $200,000,000 in funds was well-spent in the pursuit of building the most seamless Disaster movie of all time. Whether the physical sets or the computer-generated disaster zones, practically every shot within 2012's 158-minute runtime look fantastic, and the CGI meshes with the real-life actors and props seamlessly. This is definitely a hallmark effects film, and it's a shame it didn't make the cut for an Oscar nomination in said category, though it's hard to argue with the quality of effects as seen in Avatar, District 9, and Star Trek. Still, that doesn't change the fact that the special effects -- and their scale and intricate detail in particular -- will leave jaws agape as a plane or a speeding limousine maneuver through a crumbling city or an aircraft carrier tumbles atop a national landmark. It's spectacular stuff -- the reason the film was made, in fact -- and because it works so well, the movie, by extension, also works wonderfully for what it is and all it strives to be. Finally, 2012 boasts a fairly strong cast not only of name actors but actors that play their parts with a sincerity rather than simply coasting along and allowing the special effects to hide what could have been phoned-in performances. As-scripted, the characters are somewhat flat and the relationships clichéd at best and phony at worst, but the performers manage to add some needed but not necessary and certainly not overplayed depth to all of the primaries. There's a relatable aura about Cusack's character, the actor portraying an everyman that manages to escape one disaster after another, and even if the plausibility of such daring and dangerous escapes could only happen in the movies, his exploits make for exciting, blood-pumping, and crowd-cheering entertainment at a base level, which is this picture's singular goal. Mission accomplished. Cusack's character's relationship with his family might be pulled from the most overused plot device in the book, but Cusack makes it work just well enough within the blistering pace and the dark context the movie establishes. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Oliver Platt form a surprisingly strong good guy-bad guy tandem, both actors turning in honest performances and playing to their characters' traits and, ultimately, their final confrontation splendidly. Ejiofor in particular makes for a great hero in a movie like this, the actor giving not only thoughtfulness to the part but also a soul that convinces the audience of his intelligence, leadership, motivations, sincerity, and strength of morals. Woody Harrelson is the film's surprise performer, the actor seeming to have as much fun here as in Zombieland and milking the unfortunately small but memorable part for everything it's worth and then some, his character serving as the catalyst for the primary adventure while delivering a healthy dosage of comic relief. Danny Glover turns in the film's only dour performance as a President with the personality of a blank greeting card and a nonchalance toward a part that, admittedly, could have been better scripted to begin with. A few years prior to the movie's namesake, audiences are treated to a big but not completely dumb End-of-the-World flick that itself is far from being a disaster, even if anyone who seems hellbent on faulting it for not being the next Gone With the Wind would otherwise have people believe. No, 2012 isn't Gone With the Wind -- nor does it want to be -- but darn it if it isn't big, fun, and even a bit moving in places, a perfect popcorn movie that's everything it promises to be and even just a little bit more but without reaching for unattainable or unreasonable heights. 2012 has its flaws -- few movies don't -- but they're easy to ignore considering they're positively dwarfed by the film's scope, scale, special effects, sound, and even just a little bit of heart amidst the disaster movie clichés and formula construction. 2012 is easy to dismiss outright but hard not to enjoy once the lights dim and the curtains open, Director Roland Emmerich's picture the bearer of bad news but the bringer of one of the year's most entertaining and surprisingly effective movies. Sony's Blu-ray release does the film proud, the three-disc set featuring an excellent 1080p transfer, a stunner of a lossless soundtrack, and a host of extra content. Why not pick up a copy of 2012 on Blu-ray; in a couple of years, it won't matter anyway. Right? Cast Notes: John Cusack (Jackson Curtis), Amanda Peet (Kate Curtis), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Adrian Helmsley), Thandie Newton (Laura Wilson), Oliver Platt (Carl Anheuser), Thomas McCarthy (Gordon Silberman [as Tom McCarthy]), Woody Harrelson (Charlie Frost), Danny Glover (President Thomas Wilson), Liam James (Noah Curtis), Morgan Lily (Lilly Curtis), Zlatko Buric (Yuri Karpov), Beatrice Rosen (Tamara), Alexandre Haussmann (Alec), Philippe Haussmann (Oleg), Johann Urb (Sasha). User Comment: bennog from Netherlands, 11 November 2009 • They had all the money, actors and special effects they needed so how did they manage to screw this one up? Obviously they thought exiting moments were more important than developing deeper characters and that's why this story that had great potential stayed so shallow. The dialog was always cheesy and none of the 'hero's' in this film really showed any real emotions nor did they give any of those speeches that give the audience goose bumps. Another thing that really bothered me was that so much was almost going wrong the whole time. Every second of the film had a 'close call' which made the film seem totally unrealistic. Examples are planes taking off just before the runway collapses or driving just fast enough to not get hit by an explosion. This can be very cool if it doesn't happen 100% of the time and I have never seen a movie abusing this way of creating excitement to this extent. So to sum up: If you feel like turning your brain off and watching special effects and big explosions with a very shallow storyline then this movie is for you. But if you feel like watching a movie with a bit of depth then go and see something else. Summary: This film had so much potential. What went wrong?. IMDb Rating (10/18/14): 5.8/10 from 228,085 users IMDb Rating (01/28/13): 5.8/10 from 167,283 users IMDb Rating (02/27/10): 6.1/10 from 57,183 users
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