Roland Emmerich 'jumps the shark'

Rating: 2/10 (21 March 2011)

I have enjoyed Roland Emmerich's earlier films, so I felt this was worth looking at. I only wanted entertainment, not high art. I did not expect to be so disappointed.
'Independence Day' and 'The Day After Tomorrow' at least had a premise (alien invasion, climate change) which, however absurd, put the story on a firm footing. All we had here was some mumbo-jumbo about the Earth suffering a catastrophic change every so often. The ancient Maya had apparently cottoned on to this and worked out 2012 was to be the next scheduled terrestrial hiccup, but this was just thrown away in the general noise.
Despite the routine spectacle and thrills with collapsing cities, last minute escapes by the central characters (to say nothing of the dog) and the usual roller-coaster ride Emmerich gives his audience, '2012' is an oddly slow and sluggish film compared to his earlier work.
Another major difference is that in the earlier films the characters overcame challenges using existing technology and their own intelligence and determination. Here we are asked to believe that a fleet of high-technology arks have been built in the heart of China, in less than three years. I am not an engineer but even I know the feasibility and design study for a new passenger jet takes longer than this - it took 17 years for the Airbus A380 to get into the air from its original inception.
In a strange way '2012' is both too much and not enough - too much CGI, too much of a credulity gap; not enough character, not enough real story. With more balance between these factors, it could have been a much better film.