Thoughts on 2012

[TremblingBluStar]

I'm sure I am way behind the curve in starting a thread about a film that is over a year old, and has probably been discussed to death by now. However, I refuse to see an Emmerich film in the theater after paying to see Godzilla there, and have avoided renting the film until recently.

So what did everybody think? I was pleasantly surprised. Not that the film was good by any stretch, but they actually managed to avoid sticking in characters that are so annoying I want to strangle them - unlike the before mentioned Godzilla, or the works of another big spectacle movie director whose last name rhymes with Norway.

There were a few things I would have changed in the film if I could. One would be the length. I know it is a trend to make films "epic" by padding them out to 2 1/2-3 hours, but there simply wasn't enough material in this screenplay to do so and keep it interesting. It felt like they kept throwing in new threats to the characters to the point where it became almost comical. Like, "what is going to try to kill them next? The door to the ship? I thought so."

Speaking of the door, whose idea was it to make a vessel that can't start it's engines when the passenger hatch is open, even a fraction of an inch??? Seems like a serious design flaw to me! And why didn't they use the anchor the writers were kind enough to point out existed 10 minutes earlier to stop the ship from hitting a freakin' mountain???

Another thing - I didn't think Emmerich would ever top the ridiculous scene from ID4 where Will Smith's fiance risks her and her son's life to save a dog. However, the scene with the poodle made me want to go Hari Kari on my kitchen floor! Why would a person be so stupid??? And why didn't anybody slap her afterwards???

Anyway, a hand to Emmerich for at least making an entertaining thrill ride movie that doesn't have any characters who out annoy Steve Urkle. That is all.

 

[Caliburn24]

Silly forgettable movie.

But even with that said I loved the big concepts and epic feel of the Arks. Very few movies do that sort of big looking sci-fi stuff, and even though the movie was crummy I loved everything about the Arks.

I thought a much better movie could begin right where 2012 ended.

 

[Starbreaker]

I thought it was terrible. It had about 3 daring plane escapes too many.

 

[Mr Light]

Saw it in theater and didn't really like it... then I watched it again at home and liked it a lot more. Once you forgive all the drawn out death scenes it's a pretty good disaster movie with some gorgeous CGI stuff.

 

[avalonmistmoon]

I thought it was terrible. It had about 3 daring plane escapes too many.

And cell phone service right up to the end when all the telephone companies and their central computers that make all connections are in the bowels of the earth...and almost forgot... all the cell phone towers that no longer exists. That was a stretch...

 

[marillion]

I thought it was a lot of fun.. The science was hokey and unrealistic, the explosions were huge, the FXs were awesome and some of the acting was pretty decent.. It was the perfect popcorn movie.

I have to say that seeing it in the theatre was MUCH more impactful than watching at home. The death and destruction was a bit much to take on the big screen and I left feeling somewhat overwhelmed.

definetely a movie to see a few times (on dvd)..

 

[Ethros]

Atrocious

 

[milo bloom]

Shit.

The woman going after her poodle was the least of the movie's offenses, though I'm a bleeding heart animal lover, so take that with the appropriate salt.


I was never a critical viewer of movies until I got into DVD and started reading discussions and analyses of movies online, and started to understand the difference between a "good" movie and a "bad" movie. And whenever my wife would want to rent something dumb like this, I would balk, and she would accuse me of being elitist.

So this particular pile of vomit comes to us via Netflix, I roll my eyes at her, but we watch. And while watching I start to hear her mumbling more and more, until it finally turns into "oh, come on!". And when the credits roll, she turns to me and says, "you know how I used to give you crap about being elitist about movies...?"

 

[Brikar99]

I laughed through this entire movie, and I don't regret a single second of it.

 

[RandyS]

A typical mindless action film.

The most amusing part for me is that one of my friends is absolutely convinced that is movie is real, and is what will happen in two years.

 

[Shurik]

I watched it just like I watch every other Emmerich movie - as a silly comedy with cool FX. It didn't dissappoint.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

It was awesomely awful.

The aircraft carrier on the tsnuami wave was the best comedy moment of 2009.

Spoiler: 2012

Killing off the Russian slut and the psuedo-stepdad who saved everyone by knowing how to fly a plane....those were cruel.

Better ending, they survive. Cusack hooks up with Russian slut.

Also, they flee Vegas in a big cargo plane and don't even ask anyone else to come with them. YOU PEOPLE CAN STAY HERE AND DIE. Not that I'd want everyone rushing the plane, but there was this "fuck the world, save your own ass mentality that wasn't limited to just the rich Russian jerk and international V.I.P.s."

The sequel will involve the oh-so-bitter non-ark survivors meeting the ark bunch.

 

[JarodRussell]

I like Emmerich's movies.

And 2012 was one of the best apocalypse/catastrophe movies I've ever seen. Just think about how horrible these kind of movies always are when they are produced for TV. At least the visual effects in Emmerich movies are fucking awesome, and acting and directing (in my opinion) are good to great.

And it didn't take itself seriously, which was the best thing about it. Emmerich knew that this kind of scenario was so fucking over the top that he simply couldn't do it in a serious way. And yet he always found a way to show down to Earth tragedy. There are two ways to prevent the audience from getting turned off by over the top action. The first one is to end it with a joke or ironic twist, the other is to suddenly bring it back to reality. And I loved how he played with my feelings in this one. For example: when California broke into pieces, exactly at that point where everything went way TOO over the top so I would stop taking it seriously, they had the old woman blocking the road for comic relief, and before you found it too silly, she died and you felt "aww". And when the entire continent broke into pieces and you started to think "Yeah, right", you saw screaming people falling out of skyscrapers and again thought "aww fuck". I liked that.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

I thought a much better movie could begin right where 2012 ended.

Yeah. The highlight of the film was definitely Chiwetel Ejiofor, whose name I cannot pronounce, despite hearing it said a number of times.

One internet reviewer I listen to said it could be an interesting television show if it were just about the people on the arcs after the world catastrophe. Problem with that idea is, there was already a show with that same premise. It was called Battlestar Galactica!

And cell phone service right up to the end when all the telephone companies and their central computers that make all connections are in the bowels of the earth...and almost forgot... all the cell phone towers that no longer exists. That was a stretch...

Well, to be fair, assuming he was using a satellite phone, there would still be reception. Much less of a problem then a ship that won't start when the door is ajar!

I was irritated with the predicable resolution of Cusack and Peet's relationship. When they kept the stepdad alive, I was half hoping they wouldn't go for the obvious family reconciliation that 99% of movies seem to have these days.

I could nitpick the science involved all day. Like the alignment of all the planets in 2012, and how they were acting like it took one spunky scientist to realize the planets were going to be aligned. Ummm... we have been tracking the movements of the planets in the solar system for a very long time!

I'm not sure why they felt the need to even explain why the core was heating. Especially when the explanation they offered was complete b.s. Why not leave it a mystery?

 

[Mr Light]

According to wikipedia they're making a TV show set after the movie about the survivors.

 

[Brikar99]

I'm not sure why they felt the need to even explain why the core was heating. Especially when the explanation they offered was complete b.s. Why not leave it a mystery?

They probably felt the audience would rather have any kind of explanation than no explanation at all. It's certainly not the type of movie that's smart enough to have any kind of real ambiguity in its script or its characters. Everything about '2012' is as simplistic and basic as it gets, in terms of its story and script. Even with such a large cast of characters and storylines, none of them are particularly complex.

 

[Nowhere Man]

I watched it about a week ago, only because it was on Netflix. I came into the movie knowing it was going to be rediculously, retardedly over the top. It was completely unrealistic, but did have some good character moments. Without John Cussack this movie would be completely unwatchable. Woody Harelson was awsome though.