2012, A Disaster Movie – Film Review Roland Emmerich’s End of the World Thriller Stars John Cusack Despite its showy special effects capturing scenes of ma destruction, Emmerich\'s doomsday movie makes the end of the world seem utterly predictable and anti-climactic.
With 2012, Roland Emmerich, who directed Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, brings audiences another over-the-top disaster movie.Starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet and Chiwetel Ejiofor, 2012’s biggest star is the special effects that dominate the film.Unfortunately, neither the special effects nor the characters are compelling enough to justify 2012’s over 2 ½ hour running time.
In this doomsday movie, powerful sun storms heat up the Earth’s core, causing maive earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis.It’s a global disaster of Biblical
proportions -– or more accurately, of Mayan proportions.The movie title refers to the cyclical end of the Mayan Calendar, which some believe predicts the end of the world.
That the world’s end has been foretold allows Emmerich and co-screenwriter Harald Kloser to skim over sticky science questions.Presumably the apocalypse’s
inevitability builds tension about the survival of characters and of humanity.What it also does, what it primarily does, is concentrate on the spectacle of ma destruction.Although eential to the genre, 2012’s relentle disaster scenes come at the expense of developing its characters, narrative, and themes.
