Ever since I was a lad I have always had a fondness for the disaster flick. Earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and even meteors falling from the heavens have over the years been fair game for the Hollywood producer. In the 1970’s there was a plethora of disaster movies released, some which I still consider the best movies ever including The Towering Inferno, Earthquake, Meteor, and who can forget Gene Hackman climbing a Christmas tree in an upturned cruise liner trying to escape rising water in the original Poseidon Adventure?

Fast forward some thirty odd years and the disaster flick is still big business… well for Roland Emmerich, the guy behind such modern classics as The Day After Tomorrow, Godzilla, and Independence Day it is. 2012 is Mr Emmerich’s latest attempt at showing how the world might end and boy does it end, well for most people on earth at least. Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, violent storms, it’s all here in disastrous abundance along with explosions galore, crumbing cities, and roads ripped asunder, all done in the best possible taste

The long and short of it is the F/X in 2012 will make your head spin, in a good way, and although the actors do a great job, including the always watchable John Cussack, it’s the F/X that are the real stars of this movie. In fact there aren’t too many scenes in this two and a half hour epic that don’t have F/X coming out of the wazoo.

Some people have stayed away from 2012 because of the Mayan prophecies that supposedly permeate the story of the movie. In fact I read one review from a noted Christian critic that said the movie was playing into all the 2012 hype that is leading people away from the truth. However, I would say that although the prophecy is mentioned a couple of times it is not the be all and end all of the movie. In fact there is even mention of the “Christian rapture” so the producers tried to be as PC as possible, given the context of the movie.

If you are into mindless excursions of family friendly destruction and mayhem then you will probably love 2012. If you prefer your movies more laid back and void of any F/X then maybe you should give this one a miss. As for me, I loved every second of the onscreen chaos, adventure, action, and close escapes. As a movie 2012 is not quite as good as The Day After Tomorrow as it’s a little more sappy in places, but it still holds it’s own as a giant in the disaster movie genre.

Christian St John
May, 2010 (2 years and counting… )

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