Will Nostradamus and the Mayans be proved right?

Rating: 6/10 (6 April 2011)

The film 2012 starts with the premise that out in the movie-going public there are a considerable number of people who are aware of the prophecies of Nostradamus and the fact that the Mayan calendar ended in our year 2012. Otherwise the title and film would have really little significance.
In point of fact there have been several times in history when a lot of folks thought that certain years would mark the end. In the 19th century a gentleman named William Miller managed to convince quite a following that 1844 was going to be the end of the world. When it didn't happen, he lost a bit of credibility.
2012 is a combination end times film you see normally out of Christian productions and the end product of those Seventies era disaster movies. Solar flare activity has been on the rise and those flames of burning hydrogen are heating the Earth from the outside and from the inside like a microwave oven.
However this has been foreseen and a disaster plan is put into operation by President Danny Glover and other heads of state. But his top science adviser Oliver Platt takes operational control and he's a nasty dude with his own ideas of maybe ruling a post apocalyptic world. He quarrels with another scientist Chiwetal Ejifor and the two have a running Spock/McCoy battle for pure science over humanity throughout the film.
At the same time hack novelist John Cusack learns of the impending cataclysm and works quite a few miracles to get his family out and be listed among the survivors. In fact he plays a key role in everybody's survival in the film.
One memorable character you won't forget is Woody Harrelson who runs a doomsday pirate radio station. As all his conspiracy theories are proved right, his dying reaction is positively orgasmic.
Barack Obama could not have been better portrayed on the screen even in pseudonym than by Danny Glover. He gives his blessings to scientist daughter Thandie Newton and to Ejifor for their hoped for survival. Newton and Glover's scenes are the most human and humane in 2012.
Is there validity to all of this? Those earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand and Fugoshima, Japan certainly give one pause to reflect. On the other times a whole lot of my credit cards have been renewed past 2012, one of them up to 2015. Can Visa, Mastercard, and American Express know something we don't.
2012 set out to be the ultimate disaster film and it came considerably short of the mark. But it's not bad entertainment and does pose a few questions for the audience to ponder on.