2012 (2009)
Directed by Roland Emmerich
Dr. Adrian Helmsley, part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect on the earth of radiation from unprecedented solar storms, learns that the earth's core is heating up. He warns U.S. President Thomas Wilson that the crust of the earth is becoming unstable and that without proper preparations for saving a fraction of the world's population, the entire race is doomed. Meanwhile, writer Jackson Curtis stumbles on the same information. While the world's leaders race to build "arks" to escape the impending cataclysm, Curtis struggles to find a way to save his family. Meanwhile, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of unprecedented strength wreak havoc around the world.
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Inspired by popular pseudoscientific claims that the Mayan calendar predicts the world will end on Dec. 12, 2012, the film is a sort of disaster-genre greatest hits collection, gathering the tidal waves from "The Perfect Storm" and "The Poseidon Adventure," the temblors from "Earthquake," the volcanoes from "Volcano" and "Dante's Peak," the fireballs from "Armageddon," and other special-effects traumas into that paradoxical form of entertainment that allows viewers to escape their real-life woes by imagining something far, far worse.
He has become the modern day “Master of Disaster,” a title once bestowed on filmmaker Irwin Allen thanks to the success of his back-to-back blockbusters The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno.
Rumoured to cost some $260 million (U.S.) – figure most of it went for CGI – 2012 liberally lifts from the Irwin Allen playbook, especially The Poseidon Adventure, right down to the cruise ship turned turtle by a gigantic tsunami.
Even “master of disaster” Irwin Allen liked to shake up the status quo in such films as The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, but Emmerich has no imagination: His A-listers live, his support players die.
When the ill-fated cruise ship of The Poseidon Adventure (1972)?a film Emmerich and co-writer Harald Kloser reference here more than once?was capsized by a tidal wave, my 10-year-old self may have understood that flesh-and-blood stuntmen, not actors, were hanging off those upside-down cocktail tables, but I still feared for them and, by extension, for the film's characters.
He has long since surpassed the previous title-holder, producer Irwin Allen (“The Poseidon Adventure,’’ “The Towering Inferno’’), to become the Cecil B. DeMille of his generation, purveying jaw-dropping sensation yoked to cheap sentiment and appallingly (or is that appealingly?)
Of course, in the tradition of such ensemble-rich Hollywood disaster flicks as The Towering Inferno (1974) and Earthquake (1978), 2012 offers up a lot of talented actors getting paid obscene amounts of money to ham it up in support roles in front of a green screen – Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, Stephen McHattie, Jimi Mistri and George Segal all get to ask 'What was that?", roll their eyes a lot and die or fall in love.
Even “master of disaster” Irwin Allen liked to shake up the status quo in such films as The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, but Emmerich has no imagination: His A-listers live, his support players die.
Unlike something like the original "Poseidon Adventure" (which Emmerich steals from liberally, especially in the film's last half-hour) or "The Towering Inferno," "2012" practices none of the craft of the classic suspense movies.
There's the giant wall of water from The Poseidon Adventure, the apocalyptic ark from Evan Almighty, the panoramas of devastation and dad-and-son bonding from Spielberg's War of the Worlds and the notion of prominent people getting a ticket out of the disaster from both Dr. Strangelove and the 1951 film When Worlds Collide.
Titanic and When Worlds Collide are similarly strip-mined.
The destruction, admittedly, is all state-of-the-art — half a century and many technical generations removed from the original “When Worlds Collide.”
“Titanic,” “Earthquake,” “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” “The Hurricane” — they’re all here and more, complete with Adam Lambert musically channeling Maureen McGovern (“The Poseidon Adventure”) as he warbles over the closing credits.
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Of course, in the tradition of such ensemble-rich Hollywood disaster flicks as The Towering Inferno (1974) and Earthquake (1978), 2012 offers up a lot of talented actors getting paid obscene amounts of money to ham it up in support roles in front of a green screen – Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, Stephen McHattie, Jimi Mistri and George Segal all get to ask 'What was that?", roll their eyes a lot and die or fall in love.
“2012” is constructed on the visual and narrative principles of “Independence Day” and “The Day After Tomorrow” – that is, on the idea that a subtle indication of great potential disaster can, and often will, swell into something dark and gloomy and cause countless motion picture stand-ins to serve as unfortunate casualties.
While hitting highlights like the rousing “Independence Day,” Emmerich is also responsible for cringers such as “The Day After Tomorrow” and 1998’s “Godzilla.”
This is the guy who gave us Independence Day (1996), Godzilla (1998), The Day After Tomorrow (2006) and 10,000 B.C. (2008).
In what exact sense he may have meant that remains ambiguous, but Emmerich now stands as our premier Hollywood Disastermeister, nuking and zapping historical landmarks in “Independence Day,’’ “The Day After Tomorrow,’’ “Godzilla,’’ and other works of taste and forbearance.
Roland Emmerich , the director and co-writer, has been vandalizing monuments for years, as in " Independence Day ," "The Day After Tomorrow" and " Godzilla ."
We should probably be grateful to Emmerich for not larding the picture with the endless eco-blather that burdened his last disaster special, "The Day After Tomorrow"; but this one is sprinkled with little We Are All One sermonettes that are almost as irritating.
Growing up in the 1970s meant a constant stream of them, from every increasingly goofy entry in the "Airport" franchise and "The Towering Inferno" to B-level crap like "Meteor" or "Damnation Alley."
“2012” is constructed on the visual and narrative principles of “Independence Day” and “The Day After Tomorrow” – that is, on the idea that a subtle indication of great potential disaster can, and often will, swell into something dark and gloomy and cause countless motion picture stand-ins to serve as unfortunate casualties.
I have always though that Roland Emmerich was a hack director with a penchant for cheese and “2012” is no different from “Independence Day,” “Godzilla” and “10,000 B.C.”
While hitting highlights like the rousing “Independence Day,” Emmerich is also responsible for cringers such as “The Day After Tomorrow” and 1998’s “Godzilla.”
This is the guy who gave us Independence Day (1996), Godzilla (1998), The Day After Tomorrow (2006) and 10,000 B.C. (2008).
Sure, Emmerich helped make Will Smith a worldwide superstar in "Independence Day," but Big Willie was still thought of as a rapper first and a television star second when that movie was being cast, and you'll notice he hasn't been in another Emmerich movie since.
In what exact sense he may have meant that remains ambiguous, but Emmerich now stands as our premier Hollywood Disastermeister, nuking and zapping historical landmarks in “Independence Day,’’ “The Day After Tomorrow,’’ “Godzilla,’’ and other works of taste and forbearance.
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One great aspect about 2012 is that Ejiofor and Platt play their roles like a variation on Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington in Crimson Tide.
Certainly, the characters are less trying than Tom Cruise and his dysfunctional family in Spielberg’s War of the Worlds (2005).
Steven Spielberg had approached this terrain a year later with War of the Worlds (2005), but he infused his blockbuster violence with an air of genuine trauma that suggested a permanent connection between actual and recreated shock.
There's the giant wall of water from The Poseidon Adventure, the apocalyptic ark from Evan Almighty, the panoramas of devastation and dad-and-son bonding from Spielberg's War of the Worlds and the notion of prominent people getting a ticket out of the disaster from both Dr. Strangelove and the 1951 film When Worlds Collide.
If it worked for Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds (2005), it will work for Roland Emmerich and John Cusack in 2012 .
As in Steven Spielberg�s War of the Worlds, it seems that most of the planet dies so that a guy can prove to his ex-wife that he�s a good man after all.