Noah's Ark: The Haves and the Have Nots

Rating: 5/10 (29 March 2010)

2012 is an odd film. It can be viewed on a number of levels: it brings to the public eye the old Mayan prediction that the earth and civilization as we know it will be destroyed on December 21, 2012, it is an exercise in computer generated graphics in the hands of Roland Emmerich, it poses a few questions as to what is important in life and how learning what is important is learning how to live in the now, and it is a roller coaster corny simplistic mess of a plot that sells out at every chance it gets to make a meaningful statement.
The cast, watching the crumbling and burning of the planet, is huge. John Cusack is a satisfying hero/returned dad, Chiwetel Ejiofor represents the good in science, Oliver Platt propels the action with his usual ability to steal a scene, Woody Harelson is, well, Woody Harelson as dopey as ever, Thandie Newton and Amanda Peet add the appropriate glamour and love interests, Danny Glover makes a fine President of the USA, Johann Urb is a very screen-powerful presence as a Russian pilot, and Osric Chau makes a very positive impression as a personality the camera loves and a character with whom we can identify (he needs some important roles to allow us to further examine his potential). And there are others equally as well cast.
What will bother those who find a degree of credence and associated anxiety with the Mayan prediction will be sorry to see the silly manner in which 400,000 of mankind and animalkind are saved in boats to land in Africa to restart civilization. But then this is Hollywood and Roland Emmerich tends to concentrate more on CGI than on content. It is long, but then it is entertaining - to a point.
Grady Harp