Great edge-of-the-seat experience!

Rating: 10/10 (22 November 2009)

A die-hard fan of natural disaster movies, I had been waiting for this one for months. You can't help but admit that all the publicity from the History and Discovery channels, astrology sites, and scientific journals added to the hype. Whether or not the events in the film are possible is a whole another debate, but as far as the watching experience goes, it definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat!
Even an ever-so-slight, infinitely small chance of this being true in just three years is a chance big enough to make the audience anxious to see what happens in the next frame. The special effects make your eyes pop out. My favorite show of these effects occurs in one of the first scenes in California (the one in the trailers) where destruction of a city is shown. Falling skyscrapers, collapsing freeways, cars falling through the earth's crust--each pixel of the large, panoramic screen screams of havoc and destruction as the end of civilization approaches.
Another aspect of this film I particularly liked is that it gives importance to the rest of the world outside of the U.S. Unlike previous movies with similar themes such as Independence Day, Armageddon, Deep Impact, etc., all disasters--natural or extraterrestrial--seem to have their eye focused on the U.S. 2012 doesn't abandon this practice completely with everything starting in California, but it definitely shows a shift in global awareness, which signals a positive trend for the future. This can also be seen with the movie's massive worldwide release on the same weekend.
Of course, the unifying theme of disaster movies--perhaps the main reason I like them so much (along with adrenaline rush-inducing special effects!)--is it forces all people--rich or poor, black or white, young or old--to come together in an effort to survive.