The effects are there but the film has no real heart or tension to it

Rating: Null/10 (21 April 2010)

The Mayans saw it coming long way off, but science has only just caught up as scientist Adrian Helmsley discovers that solar flares are having a physical impact on the Earth – heating up the core. It is getting worse and the only outcome will be the total collapse of land mass in just a few years. The politicians keep it quiet and begin planning for some form of survival of key people (and some from the private sector) while the remainder will have to be left to die as the species survives. As the physical signs of the end start increasing, one-time author and current limo driver Jackson Curtis is out with his children for the weekend and begins to put things together himself to get to a terrible conclusion.
This was a big movie in the cinema and it continues to be so on video thanks to a massive advertising budget and like many others I was always going to watch it whether I fancied it or not. The film makes no bones about what it is and we are in on it from the very start. What we have here is another big budget disaster movie where lot of things are destroyed in detail before our eyes, while the narrative follows a small group of people as they try to stop/escape/survive the destruction. At its best this genre works by being thrilling and impacting but, when it is not working perfectly it is, well, 2012. The money is all up there to be seen and we have endless narrow escapes, lots of cars and buildings falling down and lots of spectacular forces of nature on display. Problem is though that all of it is computer generated and it is done in such a way that it lacks real heart or soul and never feels real. It also doesn't help that the narrow escapes and our heroes' ability to survive most thing stops us caring because there isn't really any genuine tension or excitement to be had.
The plot has a stake in this too because it does what you expect from the very start. Of the main characters we focus on, the rich man was always going to get his while the "normal" family survive (along with the dog, which always has to survive in this sort of thing). The predictability of it hurts it but it is hurt moreover by what it is doing – OK so the normal family that we have been following are together and safe (thanks to the cruel and pointless removal of Jackson's ex's current partner) but they are the only ones who have not been powerful, "important" or rich enough to survive – we are meant to feel some sort of "fairness" as we watch the Russian Oligarch fall to his death but even if the film tries not to mention it – the arks are full of more like him while billions of others (which includes everyone watching this film) have been left to die. Asking me to feel things is not a good idea when you've got this scenario and the film would have done better to not have had an emotional core.
The cast cannot do anything of real value in the face of the technological onslaught. Cusack is an OK normal guy but this just makes it less believable, not more. He is not strong enough as an actor to make me care about his character or his family though, but then nor is Peet or McCarthy (although Wire fans perhaps will not be too upset by his fate). Ejiofor is far too good an actor to be here while Platt, Newton and Glover have very little to do – although at least they are not embarrassing in the way that Harrelson is. It is not really an actor's film though so I should not be too hard on anyone in particular but they did just take their money and do the basics.
2012 is not an awful film but it is a very base example of the genre. It delivers the effects and the noise but none of it has any heart or reason to be thrilled by it and the details of the plot is not only predictable but also rather irritating (the "happy" ending is that the rich and powerful survive while the normal overwhelmingly die). Make it an hour shorter then maybe it would be worth a look for spectacle but there is too little here to carry the near 3-hour running time.