Not convincing, but tries really hard to be so.

Rating: 3/10 (30 January 2010)

I can't really say that Roland Emmerich has put his signature on anything that I've come to appreciate. Maybe I just don't get this type of movie, or maybe it's simply because I feel a total lack of sympathy for any of the characters in this picture, as well as in his previous work. Sounds a bit harsh, I might admit, but the fact is that "2012" is made in a fashion that puts the characters somewhere in a dark corner, and places the idea of "the end of the world" on a pedestal in the center, with plenty of spotlights pointed at it. The story is constantly focused on the destruction of the Earth, and the people just seem to be there to fill out the gaps, and to make the scenes of explosions and floods of water fit together. The flatness of the characters, and the preposterous ways in which they repeatedly manage to escape from death, is really what brings this movie down. On the good side I thought the animations worked quite well, as well as the pace of the film, although the runtime could've been a couple of minutes shorter. The sound was good, with lots of dynamic, just the way I like it, and under the circumstances the acting efforts were fine,(after all John Cusack and Chiwetel Ejiofor are no rookies). Furthermore I think the original idea clearly has potential for a great movie, the question is who would write/direct it to make the idea justice, and in what year would a remake take place?