Pretty disappointing!

Rating: 5/10 (26 March 2010)

2012 Review The highly anticipated disaster film by Roland Emmerich, 2012, was yesterday released at my local video store and without checking if I had money to buy it, I raced down to the store and brought myself a brand new copy. The presentation, cover and back, is fantastic and the picture surely looks interesting as a Buddhist faces a big-a*s flood. Roland Emmerich's previous disaster films, The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day, were enjoyable to watch and both of them had stunning special effects. The same could be said for this movie, maybe more, because it has scenes where you are completely blown away, like the time when they were in a limo and were avoiding cracks in the grounds, and it was at that point that I really came to love the special effects in this film. The flood looked so real that it had me scared as I thought about myself facing it head-on. Some parts of the film did not look so interesting because you could clearly see that it was all CGI. The story surrounding this motion picture is good but at times they stuff it up with unnecessary scenes that I can't remember. The dialogue is all right but I really expected more out of it. The film does not portray what would the characters would really say in a real-life situation but, hey, isn't that what you would expect out of a movie like this. The characters are easy to get along with, especially Woody Harrelson's character because he is a brave and crazy guy (too bad he had to squashed by a rock), but, again, some of the characters didn't hang on to you as much as you would have liked, it would have been better if they died during the middle of the film. John Cusack surprised me at the beginning but then started to descend down to disappointment. His character should have died after removing the thing jamming the engines. I hated it when he came out of the water, breathless. Stupid movie! The two Russian kids are so annoying and what's worse is that they are twins. They act like all those other stupid obese rich kids who always have to treat the less-fortunate bad. Danny Glover was not too bad as portraying the President of the United States. The cut on him really added more emotion to the film. I hope that whenever Roland Emmerich tries to make another disaster film he should at least make the audiences happy when they go out and not all sad and disappointed like me. The film was not better than The Day After Tomorrow.
The film starts out as Dr. Adrian Helmsley (Portrayed by Chiwetel Ejiofor) travels to India to meet a friend who has just found out that the earth's core is heating up rapidly. The earth's crust is unstable and if they do not save a fraction of the planets population, mankind will be doomed. Helmsley passes on the information to Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt) who then passes it onto President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover). They decide to keep the information a secret so humans do not overreact (it's the end of the world for God sakes!) and that's when Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson) comes in. His funny little comic strip is hilarious. Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) and his son and daughter, Noah (Liam James) and Lilly (Morgan Lily), trespass and camp out somewhere near a dried up lake only to be escorted out of the compound by the military and that's when they meet Charlie. Charlie tells them about the government keeping a secret from humans about the end of the world and at first Jackson doesn't believe it but starts to when the first signs appear. They have to find a way to get on one of the Arks, big ships built to last through the apocalypse (WTF!), and survive. From then on it's a ride through cool special effects and heroics. (Sounds a bit like a synopsis).
Chiwetel Ejiofor was the only magnificent actor to star in the whole film because his role as Dr. Adrian Helmsley was really captivating. The theory of humans coming from Africa became a fact at the end of the movie as the remaining survivors go there. Oliver Platt was a big fat meanie. The film will definitely appeal to the younger ones and maybe to some older ones but the ones who are hard to trick will definitely have a bawl (Cry)! My two favorite scenes in the film have to be: When they are in the limo, desperately trying to avoid the mini earthquakes and the part where Charlie shows them his animation.
There is one thing I want to ask before I stop and that is: How could they survive the God-forbidding apocalypse which every religion says is inevitable?:)