better than I thought, same as I expected

Rating: 7/10 (30 January 2010)

After months of procrastinating on it, I finally decided to watch the film. The visual effects were interesting enough, as expected. But rather than a sinister glee, I reacted to seeing the world "destroyed" before my eyes with an unexpected sort of sadness.
I enjoyed 2012, but ultimately the plot is pretty much what one would expect. What I think is 2012's real triumph is not so much the survival of "humanity" - that is, human compassion - but to capture the "quiet" moments of the humanity in grief and loss: a father failing to reconcile with his son, a son and father privately coming to terms with the end, a family huddled together as they watch a tsunami crash down on them.
The film's most irritating aspect is actually Roland Emmerich's own personal opinions that littered the film. While a film like 2012 might perhaps be reasonably anti-religious, Emmerich's over-emphasized opinion on the useless nature of religion is at times distracting.