Home

2012 Review: Its The End of the Blockbuster (As We Know It!)

By Stephen Bain

16th November 2009 | 7 comments | 1 person likes this

2012 Review: Its The End of the Blockbuster (As We Know It!)

End of the world disaster film 2012 warned us things were going to be bad, but not this bad

BBC film critic Jonathan Ross described 2012 as ‘insultingly lazy’. Nothing could be more accurate.

This apocalyptic tale is the latest effort from Ronald Emmerich, director of Independence Day, Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow. As you may expect it is laden with special effects (the budget reportedly being around the $260 million mark).

Aside from the overwhelming feeling of deja-vu (The Day After Tomorrow), the key problem is that you cannot, at ANY point, take the story seriously. Particularly as the ‘script’ is riddled with cliché after cliché. The reluctant protagonist John Cusack is a prime example of a ‘disaster movie hero’, playing a (surprise surprise!) divorced writer alienated from his wife and daughter. There are many others however including: i) the seemingly mad hippy who turns out to be right about everything, ii) the pet dog who miraculously survives amongst all the destruction, iii) a surprisingly noble president (Danny Glover) who chooses to stay with the American people when the country is literally falling apart iv) an unlikable, odious politician (Oliver Platt) who eliminates anyone who is a potential threat v) a plane attempting to escape from the destruction that narrowly misses collapsing buildings vi) a man who, despite only having had a few flying lessons, ends up leading the crew to safety vii) an elderly grandfather wishing to make amends with his estranged son.

The CGI, whilst certainly big and loud, is completely uninvolving and nothing you have not seen a dozen times before. By the time the first big set piece arrived I had already lost any sympathy for any of the characters.

Attempts at humour seem horribly misjudged. Independence Day, despite all its flaws, had the advantage of being made before 9/11 and the tsunami. Additionally its theme of aliens and references to B-movies had a certain escapist quality. This time around however, making light of the end of the world seems strangely offensive, particularly as the so called ‘jokes’ (most notably a comically Russian businessman) are just not funny.

Events lead to a Poseidon-esque final which is meant to be suspenseful and exciting, however after having to endure the previous two and quarter hours (far too long!) I just stopped caring.

Admittedly I did not have high hopes for this but 2012 turned out to be one of the few films actually worse than expected. The friends I was with certainly formed the same view.

The tagline for this film is “We Were Warned!” After reading this review I wish I had taken note.