Emmerich goes all out on this three hour destruction derby.

Rating: 8/10 (10 January 2010)

I don't care what anyone says, I had a blast watching this movie. It's probably my favorite Emmerich film next to Stargate and ID4. Granted, if you hate Emmerich's movies, this probably won't change your opinion. Sure, 2012 is a lot more shallow than something like Avatar, but this is the kind of movie where you don't expect a super deep plot line. It's the mother of all disaster flicks, plain and simple. I don't think its fair to compare this to Michael Bay's flicks, at least 2012 tries to add some emotion/pathos amongst all the carnage, and while I didn't give a crap about any of the (Human) characters in Transformers 2, I actually liked some of the characters in this. Emmerich movies are always more about the spectacle than the people behind it, but I thought the cast kept this movie afloat. Obviously, the special effects are spectacular. (The Los Angeles escape and Yellowstone eruption were some of the most epic things I've experienced on the big screen.) It's pretty much an implausible action movie on a massive scale. Movie purists will scoff a lot at it, but entertainment wise, I found it very satisfying and very well paced for its three hours of length. It's hokey, but damn is it fun. I know people hate the term "popcorn movie" but this defines it in the biggest way.