2012

Synopsis

In the year 2012, a universal disaster brings about the end of the world. 2012 is a film that brings a very dynamic ensemble cast including Danny Glover (Blindness), Thandie Newton (Rocknrolla) , Oliver Platt (Frost/Nixon), John Cusack (Igor), Woody Harrelson (Zombieland) and many more.

Review

If you’re looking for some action 2012 dishes it all out to you. It also brings some exaggerated action scenes too. I enjoyed the movie. For entertainment purposes, it was good. It wasn’t perfect, but I munched on my popcorn and drank some Wild Cherry Pepsi and just had fun with it. I didn’t have to do much thinking and that’s kind of nice after a hard week of work.

And what’s up with the world coming to an end kind of movies? I’m getting a little nervous. I’m a firm believer in speaking stuff into existence. A complete movie all about large earthquakes and tsunamis is not promising. Consider the 2012 story. A very dynamic cast of people try to escape a mixture of natural catastrophes and try to journey to epic-sized ships in the Himalayas that were built in preparation of a 2012 phenomenon that is based on Mayanism, the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.

Of course there is the typical lead character -- Jackson Curtis (John Cusack, Igor) -- a father who is too busy for his kids. He also is the hero who saves the day; he must protect his family from the destruction of mean Mother Nature and the Earth’s core heating up at an extremely fast rate which causes earth crust displacement which hands over Tommy the tsumani and his cousins, Earthquake Emily and her sisters. I’m talking human-life termination kind of catastrophes.

You can always expect in these doomsday films a father-hero finding impossible ways to protect everyone. Or, some long triumphant speech that speaks to the masses. There’s always a butthead, cute kids, a genius, an I-told-you-so person, corny one-liners and the typical “Wooooaaaahhhh” yell when someone thinks they aren’t going to make it through a dangerous scene. It’s all so darn predictable. Can someone get away from convention and mix up the game a bit? I need some trickery and 2012 ain’t give me none, but it's still worth watching on a big screen.

And can someone please tell me how a limo can beat the earth quakes and buildings falling? Check the trailer.

This is just a big film in every way. A huge super cast of various actors such as Chiwetel Ejiofor (American Gangster) as Adrian Helmsley, a scientific advisor to President Thomas Wilson of the United States, played by Danny Glover (Blindness). Dang is Danny getting old, but I just adore him. Also, Amanda Peet (Five Dollars A Day) who plays Kate Curtis, Jackson’s ex-wife and Thandie Newton (RocknRolla) as Laura Wilson, whose character is First Daughter of the United States. Thandie is a lovely woman, but this part isn’t going to get her closer to any nominations. The part just didn’t have a lot of juice.

Oliver Platt (Frost/Nixon) has a decent size roll as Carl Anheuser, the President’s Chief of Staff. He just had an attitude through the entire film. Woody Harrelson (Zombieland) was also up in this flick as Charlie Frost a conspiracy theorist cloaked as some recluse living on a campground who prophesies the end of the world. He was crazy acting, but he knew what he was talking about. The cast may have been large, but folks had good and a natural chemistry.

Danny Glover as president is befitting, unlike Fox's 24 with President Palmer, was several years too soon. But, you see it was spoken into existence on TV and Bam… a black president – Barack Obama.

All I know is I’m praying now that there will not be any cataclysmic event that happens in 2012 as prophesied. Earth, I’m telling you now… stay cool! Do not heat up!

My Rating ~ 3 Reels

Audience Rating (What's Yours?)