2012
Year: 2009
Grade: B+
Country: USA
Director: Emmerich
Reviewif the previews get you excited then you’ll probably like the movie. if the previews don’t do it for you then you probably shouldn’t bother. it’s a sfx tour de force and that’s mostly what the film is about, but it also has some stuff in there about the unifying elements of humanity and the importance of working together and all that jazz. it’s not at all a realistic film, there were several unrealistic and unreasonable things that occurred in the film, but those didn’t really detract from it much. it would have been better if they had made the science and details like one of the protagonists bringing actual books on the ship with him instead of a kindle or something similar were more plausible. it was a fun movie to watch, but i imagine it was even more fun to make. just think of a famous landmark and how you would like to destroy it using some natural disaster, then put that into a film. that’s basically the prompt that the sfx people were given.
it’s totally contrived hysteria and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. it’s just a function of the genre. calling it a bad thing is kinda like saying noirs are too depressing or something. duh, that’s what the genre is. some are just more well done than others. for all the one-world talk they didn’t even mention africa until the end of the film and i don’t recall seeing people from south of the border either. in general we tend to forget the southern hemisphere (except for australia). also, it should be pointed out that the most unrealistic thing about the film is that the whole world is depending on china to make arks that will keep the species alive. bad idea considering they can’t even keep lead out of baby toys and are infamous for making cheap plastic crap. zing! in all seriousness, china will be number one in the near future so i gotta get my blows in while i can.
Watched in theater