A frustrated writer struggles to keep his family alive when a series of global catastrophes threatens to annihilate mankind. Prior to this events, there has been insinuations that the world is about to come to an end.
2012 is reminiscent of yesteryear '80s shlock-tastic blockbusters -- total popcorn entertainment with ridiculous dialogue and impossible situations and special effects that will boggle the brain for a good two-plus hours.
Over the top scenes of destruction aside 2012 is generally unimaginative in every way, from conception to execution. It's not particularly bad, but never has the end of the world seemed so quaint.
...seriously, how often do we want to escape into worlds that are hell-bent on ravaging our sense of security with invading aliens and furious natural disasters?
Most of all, I liked the airlifting of giraffes to ark safety via helicopter and the bizarrely unreasonable cheeriness of the beleaguered survivors who all but shout "hip-hip-hooray" after billions of other Earth citizens lose their lives.
[Nothing] will give you more respect for how difficult it is to be an actor than watching top talent like John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet and Oliver Platt struggling to treat the film's ungodly language and situations with perfect seriousness.
Even though this movie's running time of two and a half hours is about one hour too long, there's still some pretty cool disaster stuff on the way.
New Yorker
November 16, 2009
2012 is so long, and its special effects are at once so outrageous and so thunderously predictable, that by the time I lurched from the theatre I felt that three years had actually passed and that the apocalypse was due any second.
Emmerich favours hoisting his camera high and dry to give audiences the best panoramic view, but it removes all tension from proceedings - you're always at a safe distance.
