One nick-of-time climax after another; the whole film is a climax...a depressing one

Rating: 4/10 (20 May 2011)

An American geologist and an astrophysicist from India discover the heat of the Earth's core is increasing, likely to cause massive earthquakes of the 9.0 variety, tsunami waves which will cover what's left of the land, and international panic. While the world's leaders come up with a strategy to beat the odds (for themselves and the most brilliant--i.e., wealthiest--members of humanity), a science fiction writer in Los Angeles attempts to save his estranged wife and two kids from certain death. Director Roland Emmerich's end-of-civilization saga employed hundreds of special effects wizards, technicians, visual design teams, and master craftsmen, so one can be assured that the look of "2012" is definitely up-to-date. However, the real cataclysm here is the script, co-written by Emmerich and Harald Kloser, which doggedly follows the writer and his family after every last bit of interest in them as characters has drained out of the movie. The focus of the film is destruction! destruction! destruction! And yet it is so insensitive to the victims of this destruction that when a likable Russian girl near the end drowns in close-up, no one thinks twice about her. It's just business as usual for these gadget-happy disaster mavens, whose mantra seems to be, "Blow it up and they will come...in droves." *1/2 from ****