2012: Pure Hollywood trash. The effects of course, amazing - every corner of the globe - epically destroyed by incredible natural phenomenons. The cinematography, again, incredible - it looks fantastic, as do the main cast - not even the end of the world will shift a hair out of place... but that is it - the script, actors and even music, leave something (perhaps many things) to be desired.
At an 158 minute running time, one soon tires of the effects, leaving an empty shell of a movie - no plot to speak of and lazy, unconvicing, and suspiciously recognisable characters ('The Day After Tomorrow', 'Independence Day', 'War of the Worlds' etc etc). One could even claim that some scenes were lifted directly out of director, Roland Emmerich's previous movies - tired civilians, struggling, through howling winds, to cross a barren snowly landscape.... we've seen it before!
I believe the main issue is with the plot - there isn't one. '2012' is merely a sequence of visually exciting events. The movie provokes no emotional response - we feel nothing for our planet. The end of our world, as portrayed, may well have been the demise of some distant, alien planet - we cannot relate, we do not care. A coherent story would have improved it tenfold - supported by the visuals - it could have been incredible!
The other aspect I felt let the movie down (and I make reference to '2012' as a movie, not as a film, not as cinema - a little snobby critical terminology), was the actors and the lack of believable and convincing characters. John Cusack, a usually decent actor, delivers a safe performance - he plays the cliched, unlikely hero who will do anything (and endure ridiculous amounts of physical harm) to save his family. What struck me most was how unrealistic the character's reactions to the unfolding events were. I'm not suggesting the entire film should be spent watching the actors screaming and crying in terror, 
unable to say a single word - but a balance has to be struck. From the start, the adult characters are able to deal with emotional turmoil that is beyond anyone's worst nightmares, with occasional concerned glances, and the children, who's worst experiences before these events take place, would have been along the lines of a scraped knee, fail to shed a single tear (and occasionally manage a comic line or two). Just as in Spielberg's 'War of the Worlds', the main character's story is a father struggling to deal with his ex-wife's new husband bonding with his children - original eh? This story continues to near the end of the movie when the new husband is killed in a tradgic accident - one might think there might be an emotional response from his wife, but no, she almost instantly settles for her ex, kissing him passionately amid the disaster. Suffice to say - up until this point, there was no indication that the couple were unhappy...
unable to say a single word - but a balance has to be struck. From the start, the adult characters are able to deal with emotional turmoil that is beyond anyone's worst nightmares, with occasional concerned glances, and the children, who's worst experiences before these events take place, would have been along the lines of a scraped knee, fail to shed a single tear (and occasionally manage a comic line or two). Just as in Spielberg's 'War of the Worlds', the main character's story is a father struggling to deal with his ex-wife's new husband bonding with his children - original eh? This story continues to near the end of the movie when the new husband is killed in a tradgic accident - one might think there might be an emotional response from his wife, but no, she almost instantly settles for her ex, kissing him passionately amid the disaster. Suffice to say - up until this point, there was no indication that the couple were unhappy...I realise I have ranted quite enough. I will make a good effort to try and find a film that I like to blog about next time.
It's not quite the end of the world - but it's not great!
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