Not bad but not great either

Rating: 6/10 (9 December 2009)

The problem with disaster films anymore is that they are way too cartoonish. 2012 continues this trend. I get it. I know I'm supposed to check my brain at the ticket booth but that doesn't mean the movie can't be made to make me feel that it is real. If you want me to buy into the premise that the world is going to end on 12/21/2012 because the Mayans, who couldn't predict their own demise, somehow figured out ours would end in three years, the director has to make everything else in the story as believable as possible. My main criticism of the film is the way our heroes constantly avoid destruction. Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) in his car and later an RV out run every crack in the pavement and rocks hurled from volcanoes. At one point he drives a limousine through a falling skyscraper and manages to come out the other side before the building completely flattens. Later Curtis and his family leave LA in a plane which narrowly takes off as the runway collapses beneath them. The pilot, Kate Curtis's (Amanda Peet) new husband had a few flying lessons, never flew a two engine plane, but yet flies through LA skyscrapers as they are falling all around them. During these moments, and there are many of them, you feel the director is winking at you, letting you know it's just BS. That's the problem, I never felt as if the main characters were in any danger. After these initial stunts, you knew they would make it to the end unscathed except for the one character who predictably buys the farm with little remorse shown for his loss. The special effects were amazing but to me, so were the effects in Star Trek which had a much better storyline. This genre of movie has become nothing more than a vehicle for effects. This film could have been so much better if the characters were close to the danger but never in it. The tension could have been built by wondering how long could the characters stay ahead of harm's way while still having the effects illustrate the horror that was occurring from where they had been. 2012 is not awful but it was not good either. Something as big as the world ending, should have been treated in a more serious way. But Columbia Pictures will make a mint on the film and that's what film making is about these days anyway. Personally, I'd wait for the Blu Ray release.