A cheesy yet entertaining end-of-the-world film.

Rating: 7/10 (30 November 2009)

2012 is not a particularly hard movie to review - that's because it belongs to such an specific sub-genre - the disaster/end of the world film - that it's almost impossible to be disappointed by it. That is, of course, if you watch it with the right expectations. One doesn't watch a film like 2012 expecting thorough characterizations, believable drama or exact science. All I expected from the movie was likable characters, amazing special effects and lots of destruction - and that's precisely what the film delivers. Because I went to see it with the right frame of mind, I enjoyed it. Granted, it isn't a good film by any means, but it's ridiculously entertaining, cheesy and visually exciting. And unlike films like Transformers 2 - which has very little redeeming value -, I didn't feel like my intelligence was being insulted. It simply wasn't required.
2012 follows fiction writer Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), who is on holidays in Yosemite with his children, until an earthquake warning makes them return home, but not before he meets a seemingly-crazy guy named Charlie Frost. (Woody Harrelson.) He warns Jackson that the end of the world is coming on December 21st, and although he may seem to be talking rubbish at first, his theories - based on the Mayan calendar - eventually prove to be true. Anyhow, Jackson arrives at his ex-wife's (Amanda Peet) house, just as the destruction of Los Angeles is about to begin. And this is where all the special effects start appearing, and also when our protagonists have to start fleeing from all sorts of disasters in the most seemingly-inane ways possible.
If there's one reason why people have flocked to see the movie, it is the special effects. And yes, these deserve a paragraph of their own because they are, simply put, amazing. Not credibly, mind you - these kinds of visually awesome disasters are almost impossible to make credible, and if they were, I'm sure they would be really boring - but interesting, tense and awe-inspiring. I'm not too sure which scenes involved a mixture of techniques and which ones involved pure CGI - well, maybe the more obvious ones would be the giant tsunami scenes -, but they all look breathtaking. Mind you, this is the end of the world we're talking about, so not only do they look incredible, but they also convey a sense of terror and desperation very hard to find in cheaper, lazier disaster films. The destruction of L.A. would be my favorite scene - not because you see lots of landmarks and recognizable places been destroyed - the city is pretty generic - but because it's a tense, pulse-pounding sequence that feels almost like a roller-coaster ride.
Now, don't get me wrong - although that's the best scene, it is not the only one involving chaos. Unlike other disaster pictures - including director Roland Emmerich's own The Day After Tomorrow -, 2012 doesn't involve a couple of cities - it involves the whole world, and it involves a whole variety of disasters. We get floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, ash rain, volcano eruptions... well, you get the idea. And although the main focus of the film is on the U.S., we also get glimpses of Brazil and even the Vatican getting blown to smithereens. It's all very entertaining and also very visually dynamic, and the variety of it not only left me in awe, but also made me realize I was watching the ultimate disaster film - it will be very hard for any filmmaker to top 2012.
And what about the actors? Emmerich, surprisingly enough, managed to get a very impressive roster of character actors - John Cusack, Amanda Peet and the amazingly insane Woody Harrelson I've already mentioned, but we've also got Chiwetel Ejiofor as a scientific adviser to the U.S. government, Danny Glover as the President, Thandie Newton as his daughter - and a potential love interest for the aforementioned scientist -, Oliver Platt as a somehow tired stereotype of the overambitious, selfish politician, and even Chin Han ("Mr. Lau" from The Dark Knight) in a small but significant role. They all fulfill their roles adequately and without looking too ridiculous but, most importantly, they understand that for both the filmmakers and their audience, they are less important than the special effects and the thrills the film has to offer.
The conclusion is silly - and has a very sci-fi feel to it - and there are some very fatuous, ridiculous moments, but the overall package is satisfying, if not completely successful. The screenplay is unapologetically cheesy - and some of the lines these respected actors have to say are simply terrible, but in a hilarious sort of way - and the direction is as over-the-top as it could be, but the amazing special effects and the whole grandeur the filmmakers convey more than compensates for it. And unlike directors like Michael Bay, who don't seem to know how to hold a camera still or how to maintain a shot for more than half a second, Emmerich allows his audience to be amazed by the special effects, providing with many epic "money-shots" and competent action sequences. 2012 may not be a "good" movie in the traditional sense of the word, but it certainly is lots of fun. Yes, cheesy, over-the-top and even a little long, but fun.