The clock is ticking

Rating: 7/10 (17 January 2012)

...for now. In a year's time this film is going to seem extremely out of date. The end of the world plot is ludicrous, but it might have been easier if no mention of the Mayan calendar was made. The legend is obviously nonsense, and it would have been a much less silly film if it stood on its own two feet, independent of such bad science.
John Cusack (who is surprisingly good here) plays a failed, but good, writer working as a Limo driver for a wealthy Russian bully. When camping with his estranged kids in Yellowstone he discovers that the Caldera, the San Andreas Fault, and the rest of the world, are about to go down. What follows is more than 2 hours of utterly insane set-pieces, split-second escapes, breathtaking visual effects (which, for once, don't offend the eye), and lots and lots and lots of mega-destruction as Cusack and his family flee from the crumbling world beneath their feet by multiple means of improvised transportation. You've never seen a spectacle like this before, and it raises the bar ex-treme-ly high for any and all disaster flicks that might follow. Emmerich certainly knows how write action scenes.
Chiwetel Ejiofor (also not as annoying as he usually is), Oliver Platt, Danny Glover, and Woody Harrelson fill out the rest of an expansive cast as the scientists, President, and Art Bell-style conspiracy theorist. I'm glad that the politics were played down and the 'harsh truths' angle was left unchallenged for the most part. Like The Day After Tomorrow, there are no winners here, but I am beginning to notice a recurring theme among Roland Emmerich's work. It seems that he believes that our world as it is is so broken, corrupted, and irredeemable that the only way to save it is to wipe the slate clean and rise again as one species unrestricted by political or ethnic divides. So, in a way, it's a good ending despite billions being dead.
I fear that this might become dated and unwatchable in the future, which is a shame since it's definitely Emmerich's best film. Independence Day is a relic of 90s optimism and the polar opposite of 2012, which deserves better. Only time will tell I guess. If we are all still here come January 1st 2013, then perhaps we should be grateful.