2000s films

[peteryoung]

2012, 2009, USA   DIRECTED BY ROLAND EMMERICH
There's a rather good customer review of this up at Amazon that points out to other disappointed reviewers that "it's okay to simply be entertained sometimes, honestly, it is." Emmerich likes nothing more than to create over-the-top rollercoaster rides, so really, to watch 2012 with any greater expectations is to know it's gonna be an awful experience even before the opening credits roll, so why watch it at all? I did have problems with Emmerich's previous epic The Day After Tomorrow in that I felt he was wrong to depict his flash-Ice Age affecting only the northern hemisphere with the southern half left unaffected, but this time around he's been more scientifically accurate and has sensibly wrecked the entire planet. In 2012 the term 'groundbreaking special effects' has never been more literal: maybe some people enjoy watching California sink into the Pacific, the Yellowstone Supervolcano finally blowing or the Himalayas being flooded almost to the peak of Everest, if so then they're all here to witness in perfect realism. What I did particularly enjoy was seeing Chiwetel Ejiofor in another lead role (he's familiar with more realistic disaster movies, and his performance in the excellent HBO drama Tsunami: The Aftermath was memorable); Ejiofor is still convincing even if this time around the subject matter is considerably cheesier. I also loved that singular moment where Woody Harrelson's character struggles to say the word 'government' without throwing up. There are quite a few character-as-stereotype issues that people will point to, selfish Russian billionaires included if they could be bothered. Graham Hancock's pseudoscientific book Fingerprints of the Gods is acknowledged as an inspiration for the film as that's where Emmerich learned of the Earth's Crust Displacement Theory. There have been two rather unfortunate developments since its release: North Korea has banned the film because 2012 will be the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the nations founder; people caught in possession of 2012 have reportedly been arrested and charged with "grave provocation against the development of the state." Columbia Pictures is also in deep water itself for the film's destruction of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro – not for the symbolism of the act but for ignoring the copyright to the statue's depiction in films. My biggest problem with it all was that 2012 does drag considerably towards the end. A film to be both endured and enjoyed, then.

Comments

[andrewducker]

Yeah, the last half hour could have been trimmed a bit, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Silly rollercoaster action.

I mostly disliked The Day After Tomorrow because it was so dull. After the initial freeze it lost momentum and direction.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you've nailed it. Almost the definition of a popcorn movie. I loved the rollercoaster through the collapsing city. Of course I went in expecting a total hoot, forgetting that a disaster movie would include a lot of people dying. Bummer.

That bit about the copyrighted statue is hilarious. There was recent discussion of a similar topic locally, having to do with the use of images of the Space Needle.

[hnpcc]

maybe some people enjoy watching California sink into the Pacific, the Yellowstone Supervolcano finally blowing or the Himalayas being flooded almost to the peak of Everest

*raises hand*

Um.. yeah... that'd probably be me then. Love a good disaster movie. Or a bad one even, as long as it makes me laugh.

(Well me and the whole Bill Hicks "Arizona Bay" crowd anyway.)

Sounds like one I'll be watching when it hits TV then (no, I'm not going to pay actual money for it!)