2012 A Decent Disaster Movie With Some Flaws

Rating: 7/10 (5 March 2010)

2012 is a decent disaster movie with flaws which I'll get into later from director Roland Emmerich whose been known for making films of this genre like The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day to name a few. Emmerich is admirable in making this movie giving audiences state of the art special effects with good performances from the cast for the most part. John Cusuak is solid as the lead Jackson Curtis a struggling writer and limo driver who tries to save his estranged family from the global cataclysm that brings about the end of the world. It has to do something with the earths core heating up because of solar flares from the sun causing massive volcanic eruptions unlike anything you've ever seen, destructive earthquakes that level cities, and giant tsunamis that destroy everything in it's path. The rest of the supporting cast are decent in their roles including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Thandie Newton, and Oliver Platt. Danny Glover and Woody Harrelson make the best of their small roles in the film. Glover is convincing as the President whose faced with many difficult choices. I felt Harrelson went a little over the top with his character at times but he still turns in an humorous performance though. The serious mood of the film worked considering it's about the end of the world and there's some humor that could've been better but thats all right. There were many yeah right moments when Cusuak and his family were barely escaping one disaster after another within minutes of each other but I was willing to suspend my disbelief for the sake of the movie. As I mentioned before the special effects are pretty amazing even if you can tell it's obviously CG. The movie is nearly two and half hours which made it a little long, the dialog wasn't the best occasionally, and there were some predictable moments, but overall 2012 isn't that bad. For the first half hour or so Emmerich introduces us to the main characters developing some of them with strange things happening which foreshadows that the worst has yet to come. The last two hours I'd say is pretty much non stop action with Earth getting relentlessly hammered by earthquakes that take out cities in minutes, volcanic eruptions that shoot clouds of smoke and ash into the sky with massive fire clouds miles high, and gigantic tsunamis which engulf everything in it's path. The global cataclysms caused by the solar flares end up killing billions of people around the world with only a fraction surviving which does make the movie sad at times because you know none of them stood a chance against mother natures destructive power. If this does indeed happen one day I hope I'm not around for it because none of us would probably survive catastrophes like the ones shown in 2012. If Emmerich had trimmed the running time a bit, cut out some of the humor that didn't really seem to work with the serious mood, then I might have enjoyed it more than I did. Overall though 2012 was a decent disaster film but I wouldn't call it a classic. This film however is sure to please almost any fan of the genre. The movie has amazing special effects, plenty of action, drama, and good performances by the cast (Cusuak and Ejiofor) who make 2012 worth watching at least once if you can get past the overlong running time first.