How on earth did the end of the world get to be so dull?.

Rating: 2/10 (25 May 2010)

2012 is a soulless big budget extravaganza, much like Emmerich's Independence Day. The effects are jaw dropping of course, but the boring story and that I had to sit through 150 minutes of this stuff or so begun to get tiresome very quickly. Roland is capable of making an entertaining popcorn film|Universial Soldier is a prime example| but a lot of the time his films are over blown and downright dull with the effects taking over a much-needed story. 2012 is also very manipulative with its characters. It's almost as if it forces you to like them and it puts them in situations were the audience is bound to root for them, but that's what annoyed me, because I like to root for who I wanna root for. Watching John Cusack avoid death constantly became laughable after a while, and watching freeway's collapse with cars falling over, while impressive looking doesn't change the fact that this is still a lousy movie. 2012 is an event that many people are terrified of, myself included but this movie is a manipulative bore.
Performances. John Cusack is a great presence and does what he can with the crappy material, I enjoyed his sense of humor. Amanda Peet is OK but nothing special. Chiwetel Ejiofor is a solid talent, horribly underused. Thandie Newton and Oliver Platt are given thankless roles. Woody Harrelson overacts laughably that it's saddening. Danny Glover plays a decent, but underwhelming president.
Bottom line. I expected some decent things out of this, considering the horrifying events that are supposed to happen, but what I got was a big budgeted bore. People of course are gonna flock to see this movie, but I really don't advise it.
2/10