Movie review: 2012

The world's going out with a bang

Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures
Amanda Peet plays in this "world-ending" blockbuster. The movie plays at the Wilsonville cinema at 2:55, 4:15, 6:50, 7:40 and 10:15 p.m.
If the world is ending in “2012,” it’s going out with a bang
 
You know those “crazy” people on the side of the road holding up cardboard signs announcing “The end of the world is near?” Well ... they might be right.
 
That’s the premise of “2012,” the latest Armageddon flick to hit the silver screen. Apparently, the calendar used by the ancient Mayans doesn’t go past 2012. This doesn’t mean much to your everyday citizen, but the governments of the world are taking heed – with scientific evidence backing the claims of the sign holders, they’ve been preparing for the end of the world with a survival strategy for the world’s elite. Now the time has come to launch.
 
Not that they think only the wealthy, brilliant and powerful should survive. But it takes a lot of money to build four massive “spaceships,” and the easiest way to finance is to sell billion-dollar tickets. So American president Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover), scientist Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejifor) and Russian billionaire Yuri Karpov (Zlatko Buric) are on, but science fiction writer Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) and his family are not.
 
He’s not O.K. with that.
 
With the world literally crumbling and exploding around him, Curtis and his family run, drive and fly for their lives, trying to find the spaceships and sneak on board. Add in a crazy Woody Harrelson character prophesying the disaster from Yellowstone; Curtis’s ex-wife (Amanda Peet) pulling along her new boyfriend, whom the kids adore; and White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt) trying to convince Helmsley that it’s better to ensure the survival of the species than dwell on saving specific people, and you’ve got one heck of a story.
 
The acting isn’t half-bad, and the plot, unrealistic as it is (the earth is undergoing “crust displacement?”), does draw in viewers. The dialogue vacillates between cheesy and touching, but the weak spots don’t matter. The acting and script are good enough, and that’s all they need to be, because “2012” is all about the visual effects.
 
Coming from director Roland Emmerich, responsible for “Independence Day” and “The Day After Tomorrow,” the disaster scenes and visual effects were expected to be excellent, and they don’t disappoint. Picture Los Angeles rapidly falling into the ocean. A car driving through a city with glass buildings cascading down on the streets and earthquakes tearing chasms into the ground. Oceans spilling over snow-capped mountains. A plane taking off from a runway crumbling beneath its wheels, then dodging a train flying through the air. It’s all spectacular and worth seeing on a big screen.
 
If you’re looking for great dialogue or a particularly believable story, it might not be worth spending the money on a ticket ... or the 2.5 hours sitting in a theater. But for those seeking an action-packed, visually impressive movie that keeps pace so well that it hardly seems longer than the average feature film, “2012” will deliver. And it’s a fun time.
 
“2012” is rated PG-13 for intense disaster sequences and some language. It is approximately 158 minutes in length and opened nationwide Friday.
 

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sweets1 from Wilsonville
12/6/2009 2:53:02 PM

You're right, Amanda. The visual effects were stunning and realistic. Some of the dialogue was riduculous. Maybe they did it purposely, just so you couldn't wait for another action scene.




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