Cast: John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Thandie Newton, Oliver Platt, Danny Glover; Director: Ronald Emmerich; Producers: Harald KLoser, Larry Franco; Screenwriters: Harald Kloser, Ronald Emmerich; Music: Harald Kloser, Thomas Wander, James Seymour Breet; Editor: David Brenner, Peter S. Elliott; Genre: Sci-fi – Disaster Suspense; Cinematography: Dean Semler; Distributor: Sony Pictures / Columbia Pictures; Location: Los Angeles – Himalayas; Running Time: 153 mins.;Technical Assessment: 3
Moral Assessment: 3
CINEMA Rating: For viewers 14 and above
In 2009, Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) travels to India to meet Satnam (Jimi Mistry) and finds out what his friend has discovered about the rapidly increasing temperature of the earth’s core. He proceeds to Washington DC and submits a report to the Chief of Staff, Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt) and to the President (Danny Glover). The succeeding years see the world preparing for the inevitable end while billionaires start buying tickets for a guaranteed slot in a ship for the selected few who will be saved. The story jumps to 2012 where Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), a divorced father working as a limousine driver and writer takes his two children on a camping trip to Yellowstone National Park. He meets Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson), a local radio announcer who talks about the Mayan doomsday prediction. By the time Jackson returns his children to his ex-wife Kate (Amanda Peet) the earth has began to crack and crumble. Jackson races back and saves his children, Kate and her boyfriend Gordon with the plane he has hired. But they discover that the ships that were built to save humanity are in China and fly on board the plane of Russian billionaire Yuri (Zlatco Buric) and his family. They crash land in the Himalayas and are abandoned by Yuri as he presents the ticket he has bought for himself and his twin sons two years ago. Jackson’s group is rescued by Buddhist Monk Nima (Osric Chau) and his family. Meanwhile, Adrian convinces the world leaders to allow more people to board the ship. As the gates are lowered, Jackson’s group are pinned to the bottom of the ship and the device they used to enter gets stuck between the gears. The ship, unable to start its engines, is swept by the strong current towards Mt. Everest. With a time ticking fast, will they be able to save themselves and assure the continuation of humanity?
2012 promises spectacular effects and heart-stopping suspense and successfully delivers just that. The two and half hours pass almost unnoticeably as viewers are engrossed with the massive destruction on screen. Other than that, the movie is just another hi-tech end-of-the-world /disaster flick— entertainingly empty, with the plot being a little more than a framing device for the movie. Jackson Curtis is just too heroic, and the Curtis family just too darned lucky escaping gaping earth and lava missiles. The side stories that should have provided the drama and highlighted humanity are trite and predictable. (Imagine having a literal deus ex machina take care of a boyfriend so that protagonist and leading lady could get back together!) The attempt to inject humor is not enough to salvage a badly written script. Overall, the movie is a visual treat with astounding CGIs and effects, but lacks the creative prowess to be memorable.
If the movie becomes “memorable” at all, it would be for the distasteful way Emmerich kills six billion earthlings as though the end of the world were just another computer game. The only one moral function of a disaster movie is to focus on man’s altruism in times of crisis. We see how people begin to work together despite previous differences. We witness how a stranger is suddenly willing to sacrifice his safety or at times his life to save another. And almost, always, we hear a grandstanding from one of the characters about unity, humanity and sacrifice. 2012 has all these and delivers the same message: humanity ends when we stop fighting for each other. Unfortunately, Emmerich portrays disaster and destruction in such a brutal and unsettling manner that it creates a discord between the movie’s message and its presentation. Good disaster movies leave the audience teary-eyed with hope and triumphant compassion for the survivors, but with 2012, you are just glad no one else has to die again. (On another note, one will observe why mostly Catholic icons were destroyed. In Rome, the Sistine Chapel ceiling splits open right where the fingertips of God and Adam meet; the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica topples over and crushes the praying masses at the Square. In Rio de Janeiro, the Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado Mountain in Rio de Janeiro tumbles ingloriously to the ground. A venerable Buddhist monastery is washed away, but not one minaret is shown destroyed. The sharp-eyed might also notice images in the chapel where the black US president prays—one wonder if that is intended to endear Obama to the Catholics). The movie is not suitable for very young and sensitive audiences.
