In the year 2012...

2012 is what I exactly expected it to be: dumb, cliched, and fun. Technically, this film should be absolutely horrible, since it is full of sloppy dialogue, cliches that grow old fast, and the funniest Russian accents in the history of cinema. However, due to Emmerich's uncanny ability to offering amazing spectacles of destruction, laughter, and enjoyment, the film survives, with the the most action packed spectacles that give viewers the impression that the director had a drug overdose.

2012 is basically another disaster film, meaning that it portrays cataclysmic scenarios. Basically the world "as we know it" has gone to end, when solar flares from the sun cause the Earth's surface to become unstable, reeking vast amounts of earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and chaos. The story follows a failing novelist by the name of Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), who after getting divorced, becomes a limousine driver for a rich Russian family. It's after disaster strikes, that he takes his ex-wife, her current husband and Curtis' former children and goes gallivanting off to find ships which act as arks to save as many people possible. The end is predictable, and predicting who dies is as easy as finding out who will die in a low budget horror movie. However, it's the journey and not the destination, which is enjoyable.

The movie relies heavily on CG effects, but it really doesn't matter, once you see the whole earth be demolished in the most destructive way filmmakers can imagine. Michael Bay would be envious of the scenes the viewers are confronted with, as they usually are composed of explosions, mass chaos, casualties, and cool looking spectacles. Sure, it's extremely unrealistic in the way everything blows up, making The Day After Tomorrow, seem like An Inconvenient Truth, but that's not the point. The point is to shock the viewer into wonder, as he sees mass chaos dished out in mass quantities, making one view of this film to satisfy those who crave destruction.

Mass chaos aside, the film has sloppy dialogue, which make many sad moments seem cheesy at best. The acting doesn't help either, since they're over the top, some eliciting laughter at the complete ridiculousness of their lack of skills in the acting division. The Russians which are depicted in this film are probably my favorite performances, since their accents made their speech difficult to understand, stopping me from noticing the crappy dialogue. The weakest performances have got to be the son and daughter of Curtis, since their dialogue usually consist of stupidity that only the retarded could come up with. Whether it be their refusal to staying in a safe location, to their refusal to listen to Curtis and his Ex-Wife, the children can be called suicidally insane at best. In fact, I was praying those kids would get the ax, since they just added to the stupidity to the film as a whole.

2012 is a dumb, but fun film. It's a good time spender which is unique in it's destructive premise, and scenes. Those expecting anymore should look elsewhere, since their is little to no character development, complexities in the storyline, and heartfelt moments that are more sad than cheesy. It's good cheesy fun, something that will ultimately be forgettable, but will be interesting for the two and a half hour viewing time.