The effects are better than ever, everything else is as laughable as before

Rating: 7/10 (31 May 2010)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Serious film connoisseurs will be familiar with Roland Emmerich and the type of epic, big budget, effects laden blockbuster films he specialises in. They never fail to impress with the 'wow' factor, from the alien spacecraft towering over the White House in Independence Day, to the world freezing over in The Day After Tomorrow. His latest effort focuses on the Ancient Mayan prediction that the world will end in the titular year, when the earth splits open and sinks under a tonne of water. The focus falls on errant father and failed author Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) who's left to save his estranged wife and children and the new man in their lives when the disaster erupts. Meanwhile, government researcher Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) has returned from India with some unsettling news for those in power, which riles Chief of Staff Carl Anhauser (Oliver Platt) who first doubts the severity of the threat before becoming a bureaucratic fascist when deciding who gets space in the bunkers to survive. All the while, President Wilson (Danny Glover) tries to lead his people to a noble victory.
There's a selection of decent supporting players here too, including Amanda Peet as Curtis's disappointed, stern ex wife, Thandie Newton as a conscientious member of the administration and Woody Harrelson in a brief role as a crazy sounding guy warning of impending doom. Quite a selection of characters in a lengthy, ambitious film that is somewhat overlong, and with not the least flimsy of scripts in the world, that will challenge your attention a little bit. There's just nothing overly outstanding about the film, with the typical characters (the flawed good guy, the conscientious voice of reason, the uncaring bureaucrat, the conspiracy theorist nutter, the good guys and the bad guys, basically) and the usual wild suspensions of disbelief required as the heroes are the only ones miraculously surviving collapsing buildings, engulfing fireballs, shattering fragments and all manner of dangers. A younger person may find it the most incredible film ever made, and in terms of special effects it quite possibly is, but an older, more cynical critic is likely to sit there finding it all rather corny and hard to hold their attention.
It's not even jabbing at any social or political subtext (unlike the folly of man causing the end of the earth in The Day After Tomorrow) just feeding off a most likely ludicrous prediction from some ancient people. Those who've seen most of Emmerich's films will know what to expect, but in more cynical times, he needs less throwaway material than this if he's to keep making films on such a big scale. ***