Roland Emmerich’s latest is a good fun premise and starts off as an entertaining little disaster movie quickly dives into head scratching plot holes and absurdity that doesn’t make sense at any turn.
(Spoilers throughout, sorry they must be discussed)
The plot of the film revolves around the supposed end of the world predicted in the Mayan calendar with the end coming Dec 21st, 2012. The discovery of the impending changes is discovered three years early when some geological studies discover rising core temperatures and changing crust density that will lead to cataclysmic destruction and displacement of the land masses of the earth. The United States from here spear heads a massive project to build a set of arcs to help preserve the life and society of earth during the mass destruction. As the impending destruction arrives, the initial destruction of LA that we experience through John Cusack’s family characters eyes is indeed an impressive cinematic moment but after this and the explosion of Yellowstone the film drops off in quite a hurry.
The first problem is the Russian family that is inserted into the plot are completely unlikable and a waste of time. From here, how many times can we really see an airplane take off in destruction and narrowly make it? Once Cusack joins up with the Russians, his story become pretty worthless, and unfortunately they stay away from Chiwetel Ejiofor’s scientist with a conscious plot which is far more interesting, well until we get to the ludicrous final scenes. From here let me bullet point some thoughts that crossed my mind: [Read more...]