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As I was watching 2012 I was thinking how director Roland Emmerich has really become the modern day Irwin Allen. To you younger readers it should be noted that back in the day (70's) Irwin Allen was the master of disaster. His films THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE and THE TOWERING INFERNO were the disaster masterpieces of their time and actually pretty much set the standard for disaster/thriller pics.
Someone in the special features of 2012 actually makes the same comparison and hopefully it makes Emmerich proud to be compared to the legendary film maker. And it is a comparison that he has certainly worked hard to deserve.
Between his films INDEPENDENCE DAY, GODZILLA, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW and now 2012 he has pretty much destroyed everything.
He takes the destruction world wide with 2012 which ties the end of the world with the end of the Mayan calendar and a huge solar flare that basically boils the core of the earth and causes the earths crust to destabilize.
As anticipated this event lends itself to scenes of complete and total destruction the likes of which have never been seen. Make no beans about it, the star of this film is the magnificent special effects. They are breath-taking and for a disaster film lover like myself they are the ultimate fix.
As kind of the case with most of Emmerich's works he loves to layer multiple story lines with a slew of characters and 2012 is no different. The main focus in this film is John Cusack who plays Jackson Curtis a struggling author who works part time as a limo driver. He is recently separated from his wife played by Amanda Peet who has a new man in her life. Jackson is around quite a bit as he wants to remain a part of his kids lives and as the film opens he is picking up the kids to go out on a weekend camping trip. Of course while on the trip that is when all hell breaks loose. The kind of complicated storyline about why the world is ending plays out quickly and you have to pay attention to make any sense out of it but once all that is past the destruction begins and it is way over the top fun. We get massive earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, explosions, just about anything you can think of.
The extended scene where Curtis and his family escape the city, first by car and then by plane is pretty much the most intense and breath taking disaster scene ever put to film. While completely over the top and implausible it is just way to much fun to miss.
A lot of big money stars make small appearances. We get Woody Harrelson as the kooky mountain man / pirate radio host who knows the truth, Danny Glover as The President, Oliver Platt as the asshole Washing ton bureaucrat and the stupidly attractive Thandie Newton as the Presidents daughter. Lots of other small cameos so keep your eyes open.
Naturally all of these characters lives all end up converging in the end and of course even though the world is changed forever ultimately the sun still rises and life will go on.
After the dramatic and impressive disaster scenes the last third of the movie seemed a little sluggish to me and all though attempts are made to ratchet up the action at the end it all just kind of pales in comparison to the earlier action. I guess that a risk you run in these type of films.
Overall though I completely enjoyed my time spent in 2012 and would highly recommend you give this one your time.
Not a ton of special features but the selection that they do have is entertaining. I didn't have time to listen to the commentary but it is on my to do list and I think I will enjoy it as I liked the movie so much. There is an alternate ending that I enjoyed seeing and have to agree with the choice they made. Also some deleted scenes and a retrospective on Roland Emmerich round out the selections. I would have like to had seen a making of feature but that was not to be. As seems to annoyingly be the case you have to get the Blu-ray collectors edition if you want the extra goodies. Grrrrr.....
2012 will be available Tuesday March 2nd in standard DVD, single disc Blu-ray and 2 disc Collectors Edition.
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