Has its niche

Rating: Null/10 (7 January 2013)

I don't really have anything against Roland Emmerich. The Independence Day is on my favourite guilty pleasures, and I sat through The Day After Tomorrow just fine. It's just that all of his catastrophe/Armageddon films are pretty much identical, with superficial skin and setting changes. Some kind of a disaster is about to destroy the Earth as we know it, and all of this is seen through the eyes of a normal family that at some point just happens to cross paths with the high and mighty politicians that are trying to save the humanity. The novelty has worn off at this point.
Independence Day was also better in my opinion, because it was the most honest about the fact that this kind of a end-of-the-world scenario is highly unlikely and more than a bit silly in certain aspects. It got around that fact by adding in aliens and thus making it a scifi film. The Day After Tomorrow and 2012 on the other hand at least try to be somewhat scientifically accurate and believable, which does the films no favours. Also, Independence Day had more likable characters and actors. The president in 2012 is surprisingly about as good as the one in ID, but the main family is extremely unlikable. The dad is an irresponsible bum, the mother has very little personality, the stepfather is a smug redshirt and the son is an asshole. The only likable character is the daughter, with her adorable hat-obsession. The side characters aren't any better, though the Russians are at least sometimes funny.
So why would anyone want to see this film? For the special effects, mostly. It's the kind of a film where the story gets sidelined more often than not in order for the big-budget action spectacles to take place. If the viewer is expecting that and is able to accept the limitations of the story, he might very well like this just fine. I was perhaps a bit bored most of the time, because none of the catastrophe scenes were anything I hadn't seen before, but I can't say that they were bad, either. Emmerich knows what he's doing with these films.
I also have to admit that the final solution to the Mayan End of the World is kind of clever. The film lulls you into believing that the solution will be fairly clichéd and traditional for these kinds of films, but then it manages to surprise you. Points for that.
So, all in all this is a film that I wouldn't really recommend. If you've liked Emmerich's other catastrophe films and are looking for more, then sure, but otherwise I'd give this one a pass.