2012 (2009) Dir: Roland Emmerich
- Ridley Coote
- Mar 9
- 2 min read
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Remember that time everyone thought the world was gonna end in 2012? Well, part of that hysteria - in its many varying degrees, was this Roland Emmerich directed disaster movie from 2009. I can remember watching it around the time just before it became the titular year - I can remember liking it too. I don't think I've watched it since then, so I figured it was worth a go.
The film's visuals were a fairly mixed bag, to say the least. Some of the CGI looked great, all things considered, but then there were also several scenes with it that looked very noticeably artificial. I will say, in fairness, I was, to an extent, looking to see if the CGI had held up, so perhaps I noticed it more than a casual viewer would.
To say that the story was nonsensical, even within the film's science fiction parameters, would be putting ot fairly lightly. The one thing that was definitely accurate was that the rich and powerful would definitely screw over everyone else to try and survive the end of the world. It was way too long, and had too little in the way of meaningful substance to it.
The characters were full of tired old tropes and devoid of any real depth, making them all entirely forgettable. None of them were particularly interesting, and none of the performances were especially strong. That said, those that stood out a little more were John Cusack and Chiwetel Ejiofor, who had some of the stronger scenes of anyone in the film.
The likes of Amanda Peet, Thandiwe Newton, and Oliver Platt were watchable, if not overly impressive. The same can be said of the two child actors; Liam James and Morgan Lily, who did fairly well with their roles. Unfortunately, there were also a fair few mediocre acting displays in the film, most notably from Tom McCarthy, Woody Harrelson, Danny Glover, Zlatko Burić, and Beatrice Rosen.
Overall, this isn't a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but, as disaster films go, it's certainly watchable. It does have a lot of issues, but it fits the mold of an effective 'popcorn flick' if ever a film did. I can't imagine I'll watch this again anytime soon, but I don't regret doing so now. It was an interesting one to revisit.
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