movie review 2012 is a perfect disaster

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It's not so much that the Earth is destroyed, but that it's done so thoroughly. "2012," the mother of all disaster movies (and the father, and the extended family) spends half an hour on ominous set-up scenes (scientists warn, strange events occur, prophets rant and of course a family is introduced) and then unleashes two hours of cataclysmic special events hammering the Earth relentlessly.

This is fun. "2012" delivers what it promises, and since no sentient being will buy a ticket expecting anything else, it will be, for its audiences, one of the most satisfactory films of the year. It even has real actors in it. Like all the best disaster movies, it's funniest at its most hysterical. You think you've seen end-of-the-world movies? This one ends the world, stomps on it, grinds it up and spits it out.

It also continues a recent trend toward the wholesale destruction of famous monuments. Roland Emmerich , the director and co-writer, has been vandalizing monuments for years, as in " Independence Day ," "The Day After Tomorrow" and " Godzilla ." I still hold a grudge against him for that one because he provided New York with a Mayor Ebert and didn't have Godzilla step on me and then squish me.

In all disaster movies, landmarks fall like dominos. The Empire State Building is made of rubber. The Golden Gate Bridge collapses like clockwork. Big Ben ticks his last. The Eiffel Tower? Quel dommage!

Memo to anyone on the National Mall: When the Earth's crust is shifting, don't stand within range of the Washington Monument. Chicago is often spared; we aren't as iconic as Manhattan. There's little in Los Angeles distinctive enough to be destroyed, but it all goes, anyway.

Emmerich thinks on a big scale. Yes, he destroys regular stuff. It will come as little surprise (because at this writing the film's trailer on YouTube alone had more than 7,591,413 views) that the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy rides a tsunami onto the White House. When St. Peter's Basilica is destroyed, Leonardo's God and Adam are split apart just where their fingers touch (the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel having been moved into St. Peter's for the occasion). Then when Emmerich gets warmed up, the globe's tectonic plates shift thousands of miles, water covers the planet, and a giraffe walks aboard an ark.

Also on board are the humans chosen to survive, including all the characters who have not already been crushed, drowned or fallen into great crevices opening up in the Earth. These include the heroic Jackson Curtis ( John Cusack ) and his estranged wife, Kate ( Amanda Peet ); President Wilson ( Danny Glover ), his chief science adviser, Adrian Helmsley ( Chiwetel Ejiofor ), and his chief of staff, Carl Anheuser ( Oliver Platt ).

Many gigantic arks have been secretly constructed inside the Himalayas by the Chinese, funded by a global consortium, and they're the only chance of the human race surviving. Along with the animals on board, there's the maybe well-named Noah (Liam James). In theory, ark ticketholders represent a cross-section of the globe, chosen democratically. In practice, Carl Anheuser pulls strings to benefit the rich and connected, and wants to strand desperate poor people on the dock. I'm thinking, Emmerich often has a twist when he names villains, like Mayor Ebert from "Godzilla." So how did this villain get his name? What does "Anheuser" make you think of?

Such questions pale by comparison with more alarming events. The tectonic plates shift so violently scientists can almost see them on Google Earth. This havoc requires stupendous special effects. Emmerich's budget was $250 million, and "2012" may contain more f/x in total running time than any other film. They're impressive. Not always convincing, because how can the flooding of the Himalayas be made convincing? And Emmerich gives us time to regard the effects and appreciate them, even savor them, unlike the ADD generation and its quick-cutting Bay-cams.

Emmmerich also constructs dramatic real-scale illusions, as when an earthquake fissure splits a grocery store in half. Cusack is the hero in an elaborate sequence involving his desperate attempts to unblock a jammed hydraulic lift that threatens to sink the ark. He does a lot of heroic stuff in this film, especially for a novelist, like leaping a van over a yawning chasm and riding a small plane through roiling clouds of earthquake dust.

The bottom line is: The movie gives you your money's worth. Is it a masterpiece? No. Is it one of the year's best? No. Does Emmerich hammer it together with his elbows from parts obtained from the Used Disaster Movie Store? Yes. But is it about as good as a movie in this genre can be? Yes. No doubt it will inflame fears about our demise on Dec. 21, 2012. I'm worried, too. I expect that to be even worse than Y2K.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film Credits

2012 (2009)

Rated PG-13 for intense disaster sequences, some strong language and apocalyptic violence

158 minutes

John Cusack as Jackson Curtis

Amanda Peet as Kate Curtis

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Adrian Helmsley

Oliver Platt as Carl Anheuser

Woody Harrelson as Charlie

Danny Glover as President

Thandie Newton as Laura Wilson

Directed by

Roland Emmerich
Harald Kloser

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Review: As a Disaster Film, '2012' Succeeds

A movie still from the new film “2012” depicting the end of the world.

One mightbe excused for wondering what, exactly, German director Roland Emmerich has againstthe United States.After all, his films (such as ?Independence Day ? and ?The Day AfterTomorrow ? ) famously show American icons such as the White House and theStatue of Liberty being destroyed.

With his new film ?2012? ,Emmerich upsthe ante, depicting a global disaster caused by terrestrial instability. JohnCusack stars as Jackson Curtis, a LosAngeles writer whose failed novel broke up his marriage.Jackson wantsto reunite with his family, and ends up going (almost literally) to the ends ofthe earth to save them. At the same time in WashingtonD.C., the president?s chiefscience advisor discovers an impending danger in the Earth?s unsettled tectonicplates. He butts heads with the chief of staff over when the information shouldbe made public, and who they should tell first.

The filmtackles a variety of weighty questions, such as: If the end of the world wascoming, what would you do? If only the government knew, who should be told? Ifthere was a way that some people could survive, who should decide who lives andwho dies?

In the caseof a true global catastrophe, is there really any point to announcing it to theworld? Put simply, if everyone?s gonna die in 36 hours and there?s nothing anyone can do,what?s the point in telling people? Assuming you had perfect knowledge, whybother? Some people would panic, others wouldn?t believe it anyway, and otherswould try to write and market their book on it overnight.

These areinteresting questions, but unfortunately get lost amid the film?s shouting andexplosions and crashes. About a half dozen subplots appear, several of themawkwardly aborted in the rush to get to the disaster scenes.

Then thereare the implausibilities ?and I?m not even talking about LosAngeles sliding into the ocean in such a cinematicfashion. Jackson Curtis has more lives than James Bond and Indiana Jones puttogether, as he literally outruns fireballs and earthquakes, saving the daywith each step. But my favorite eye-roller is when almost the entire world hasbeen consumed by fire and flood ? except, apparently, the parts that allow alast-minute cell phone call so that two lead characters can share one lastscene together.

But tocriticize a disaster film for being implausible is itself a bit silly. Peopledon?t go to disaster movies to see rich emotional tapestry or ?Memento?-likeairtight logic; they go to see stuff get blowed up. And on that level, itsucceeds.

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Destroyingthe world is not easy, and the filmmakers used a variety of special effectstechniques to bring global disaster to the big screen. From a visual effectsstandpoint alone, ?2012? is a remarkable achievement. The actors were often onmoving sets ? none of that cheesy original ?Star Trek? technique of throwingactors to the floor while shaking the camera to simulate explosion concussions.In many of the scenes, the objects are actually collapsing around the actors,as giant gimbals and hydraulic lifts jostle and jolt the sets. Some of thescenes are remarkably effective (a shot of a giant wave overtaking a cruiseship is genuinely chilling, reminding me of ?The Perfect Storm?), while othersjust look like a cartoony video game.

The film isbasically a retelling of the Noah?s Ark flood story, and has nothing to do with the date 2012. It could have been setin 1995 or 2013, but the 2012 angle made a perfect hook for the film: Why nottie it in with the supposed end of the world, allegedly tied to the end of theMayan calendar in 2012?

Notsurprisingly, Columbia Pictures is taking full advantage of the New Agey 2012 doomsdaydiscussion/panic/concern to help promote the film. Over the past year or so,many people have suggested that the year 2012 will bring some sort ofsignificant change, either catastrophicdisaster (as in the film) or perhaps a new age of enlightenment (as in whatdid not happen with the so-called Harmonic Convergence in 1987). The linkbetween global catastrophe and Mayan calendar-based prophecy is tenuous atbest. Some ads for the ?2012? film begin with the phrase ?The Mayans warnedus,? though of course the Mayans did not ?warn? anyone?they simply had acalendar system that happens to ?end? in 2012, much as our Gregorian calendar?ends? on December 31. The Mayans never said the world would end that year, andhave shown irritation and contempt for the way that their culture has beenco-opted into pop culture notions and Hollywoodblockbuster film promotions.

New Age anddoomsday authors have been cranking out 2012-themed books at an amazing paceover the past six months; there are literally tens of thousands of such titlesin print, with more hitting the bookstores every day. It seems that anyone withaccess to a keyboard and an opinion on 2012 (or prophecy in general) is outthere tryingto cash in . It will be interesting to see how many of those will be forsale on Amazon.com for one cent on January 1, 2013.

Iinterviewed director and cast of ?2012? for LiveScience.com; you can seethe videosof the interviews at Newsarama. Of particular interest is my interview withChiwetel Ejiofor, in which hediscusses how his characterstruggles to maintain scientific integrity in the face of political influences.After the Bush administration?s well-publicized anti-science stance and overtattempts to bend scientific research for political ends, this point seemsespecially relevant.

Though 2012 is not a great film, it does have some interesting pro-science aspectsthat skeptics and science folks should take note of. While John Cusack is thelead star, the hero of the film is really a black scientist, Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Helmsley is thepresident?s chief science advisor, and it is he who first discovers theimpending danger. The film somewhat realistically portrays the difficulties ofscientific uncertainty?how sure do you have to be to sound the alarm? This isnot an academic question, and arises in discussions of scientific prediction ona wide range of topics ranging from asteroid impacts to global warming.

Not only isthe scientist the hero, he is also the film?s major moral compass. There are noevil, white lab-coated scientists in ?2012?, there are only scientists doingtheir best to save humanity (and a few nerds thrown in for good measure). ?2012?is a completely humanistic disaster film; the catastrophes are not the work ofangry gods, nor magic spells,but nature itself. The film shows prayer failing miserably to stop thedestruction (even the Pope in the Vaticangets smacked away; Emmerichtold me he originally wanted to show Meccabeing destroyed, but didn?t want to risk a fatwa). In the end it isscience?hardworking, unglamorous science?that saves the day.

These arewonderful, humanistic, pro-science depictions that I?d hope to see in morefilms; it?s a shame to see them buried amid so many CGI disasters andexplosions in ?2012?.

The Truth About 2012 Doomsday Hype
10 Failed Doomsday Predictions
Video - 2012: Roland Emmerich Speaks

Benjamin Radford is managingeditor of the Skeptical Inquirer science magazine. He is authoror co-author of three books on skepticism and science literacy. They can befound on his website .

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Roland Emmerich's 2012 provides plenty of visual thrills, but lacks a strong enough script to support its massive scope and inflated length.

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Roland Emmerich

John Cusack

Jackson Curtis

Chiwetel Ejiofor

Adrian Helmsley

Amanda Peet

Oliver Platt

Carl Anheuser

Thandiwe Newton

Laura Wilson

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‘2012’: film review.

If you rolled every disaster movie into one spectacular package, you would wind up with something close to "2012," Roland Emmerich's latest apocalyptic fantasy.

By Stephen Farber

Stephen Farber

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If you rolled every disaster movie into one spectacular package, you would wind up with something close to “ 2012 ,” Roland Emmerich’s latest apocalyptic fantasy.

This time Emmerich and co-writer Harald Kloser use the Mayan calendar and other end-of-days prophecies for their doomsday scenario, which imagines the world coming to an end in 2012. Eye-popping special effects ensure that this movie will be a smash hit, and while it’s entertaining for most of its excessive running time, the cheesy script fails to live up to the grandeur of the physical production.

Stitching together highlights from “Earthquake,” “The Poseidon Adventure,” “Volcano,” and even “Titanic,” the movie follows the fate of a dozen characters as they fall victim to a series of calamities brought on by some kind of solar meltdown. The issue is not so much what caused the cataclysm but how humanity will respond to the crisis. A venal presidential adviser (Oliver Platt) has the task of handpicking the people who will be allowed to board the atomic-age equivalent of Noah’s ark. So the film aims to ask profound questions about how we choose the people worth saving. But profundity is not the director’s strong suit.

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'2012': Disaster Strikes (And Strikes, And Strikes)

Bob Mondello

Jackson Strive: The movie might be shorter if he were just a little slower, but John Cusack's bookish Jackson Curtis always manages to stay a step ahead of the advancing abyss. Columbia Tristar Marketing Group hide caption

Director: Roland Emmerich
Genre: Action Drama
Running Time: 158 minutes

Rated: PG-13 With: John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Danny Glover, Amanda Peet

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Say this for Roland Emmerich's latest movie: It is a disaster.

Granted, for maybe an hour of its running time, 2012 is a reasonably kinetic catastrophe. Anyone who's seen the director's previous pictures (Godzilla, Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) has to have known that he and his army of digitizers would arrange for the world to end not with a whimper but with a particularly showy bang.

But when the Earth isn't swallowing up whole cities or belching lava at low-flying planes, the poor actors keep opening their mouths, and that proves problematic. When they're screaming it's fine, but all too often they make the mistake of trying to explain what's going on.

California, you see, is falling apart, not from budget problems but from a shift in the Earth's crust. The shift has been caused — the actors tend to talk very fast when science comes up, so I may have misheard this — by solar flares heating up the Earth's core. Or by a weird alignment of the planets, as predicted by the Maya. Or maybe both.

Whatever: The powers that be have somehow managed to hide the coming calamity from everyone on Earth except for one Los Angeles limo driver (John Cusack). And lucky for him, the apocalypse doesn't affect cell phone coverage, so he can call his ex-wife (Amanda Peet) and get her to pile the kids into the limo just seconds before their house crumbles. Also piling in, to his initial consternation, is his wife's new boyfriend (Thomas McCarthy); happily, he has taken a few weeks of flying lessons and will come in handy later.

From there, the family starts a mad scramble, seemingly to stay in the path of whatever new catastrophe nature throws their way. On the ground, they're chased by some surprisingly linear earthquakes; in the air, they dodge not just volcanic ash but flying subway trains.

And then — after much digitized North American carnage and a bit of comic distraction from an amusingly addled Woody Harrelson — comes the worldwide deluge, with waves crashing over the Himalayas.

Many silly notions get advanced in 2012, not least among them the idea that Woody Harrelson (right) is the one nongovernmental guy who has seen the trouble coming. Columbia Pictures hide caption

Many silly notions get advanced in 2012, not least among them the idea that Woody Harrelson (right) is the one nongovernmental guy who has seen the trouble coming.

Say what you will about the excess, but you have to admit that Emmerich hasn't lost his flair for destroying major landmarks: Who but this disaster-porn artiste would think to go bowling with St. Peter's dome? Still, his insistence on both quoting and topping every disaster movie from The Poseidon Adventure to Home Alone does make the End Times seem pretty much endless.

There's perhaps 40 minutes of cheesy but genuinely spectacular special effects — the stuff you came for — and two additional hours of painfully idiotic plot. Trust me, your mind will wander as a lapdog is reunited with its mistress and the president's daughter (Thandie Newton) finds true love with a rather full-of-himself geologist (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

It's nice to see that none of these folks is overly troubled by the death of the planet's 6 billion other inhabitants. But then you won't be, either, which is sort of the magic of this movie: By the time it's over, you'll feel like it is 2012 already, and you'll have such a headache that it'd be kind of nice if the whole world went away.

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Release details.

Release date: Friday 13 November 2009
Duration: 158 mins

Cast and crew

Director: Roland Emmerich
Woody Harrelson
John Cusack
Amanda Peet
Chiwetel Ejiofor

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D isaster-blaster Roland Emmerich serves us up another of the globally apocalyptic extravaganzas he has made his own, applying his trademark CGI wrecking ball to various iconic buildings. The statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio takes a tumble and an awful crack appears in the Sistine Chapel ceiling, running directly between the fingers of God and Man. Oh lordy. As ever in Hollywood pictures with urgent "international" settings, the opening scene is set somewhere in Notamericaistan, where the first signs of trouble are detected.

Then we whisk to the real action: the West Wing. A copper mine is overheating somewhere in a far-off country. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays an earnest government scientist who realises that the earth's core temperature is overheating, as apparently smugly predicted by the ancient Mayans. It has incidentally zilch-all to do with global warming. Anyway, the world is going to end – in 2012! Thus substantially buggering up the London Olympics and all our medal-table hopes! This grave implication is sadly given scant mention here, but law and order breaks down all over the world as the earth's crust starts to bulge and crack, and for the anarchy in London, Emmerich appears to reuse old footage of the 1990 poll tax riots.

The star is John Cusack, playing a divorced novelist and author of some whinging yet inspiringly influential work about humanity and peace. Downbeat performers like him are important to counterweight the grandiloquent action with sympathetic quirkiness and ordinariness. For Cusack, the catastrophe is a valuable way of reuniting his family and moreover effecting a guilt-free removal of his ex-wife's new husband. Danny Glover is the US president who elects to stay with his doomed people on earth, rather than get on board the exit "ark" – like a captain going down with the ship. The only other world leader who takes this noble course is, I am sorry to say, the Italian prime minister. Somehow I can't imagine Silvio Berlusconi being quite so noble. The British prime minister has no qualms about scrambling aboard the rescue ship and the same goes for our queen. Her mother's famous Blitz spirit of not leaving London in a crisis seems not to have been inherited.

Yet when the catastrophe hits, when the buildings crash, and the seas engulf high mountains, one aspect of normal life still continues. Characters are still making contact via their mobile phones! Now, whatever network these people are with – I want to join. Are they on a contract or pay-as-you-go? How marvellous that with the earth literally falling apart, this mobile phone company is still providing a service.

This is a wildly over the top anthology of disaster pictures old and new, and Emmerich isn't above recycling other people's ideas. But it's enjoyable and the opening CGI thrill-ride through the collapsing streets of Los Angeles is undeniably good.

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Review by Brian Eggert November 13, 2008

Everything you’re expecting from 2012 is exactly what you’re going to get. Roland Emmerich’s magnum opus is the pinnacle of his career. The director’s pithy efforts like Independence Day , Godzilla , and The Day After Tomorrow feel like small indie gems in comparison to this overblown, wonderfully destructive piece of demolitionist eye candy. Utterly impossible by any stretch of the imagination, the movie is a cheesy, one-dimensional, epic-sized spectacle that does exactly what it promises to—destroy the Earth. Audiences unwilling to dismiss reality for some very expensive entertainment by way of mass death and landmark obliteration will not appreciate its full effect.

As predicted by the Mayans hundreds of years ago, the year 2012 marks what they believe to be the end of the world. They even gave us an exact date: December 21, 2012. Emmerich’s movie opens near this point, as strange natural occurrences stir scientists to inquire about what’s happening. It seems neutrino bursts from the Sun are causing the planet’s core to boil, making the crust unstable and causing a whole lot of ruckus in the process. For the basis of his movie, Emmerich credits Charles Hapgood’s 1958 Earth Crust Displacement theory, but how the Mayans knew this would happen is never explained. Once the rumblings cause massive earthquakes to tremor, deep chasms to rupture open, super-volcanoes to blow, and tsunamis to roll, speculation into the Mayans’ curiously advanced methods of global ruin detection hardly matters.

Of course, there’s always some crackpot who no one believes, but who turns out to be right about his wild doomsday theories. And when the fit hits the shan, everyone regrets not listening to him sooner. Said nutjob is played by Woody Harrelson, who’s having fun playing his hippie radio show host-cum-prophet. His more respectable counterpart is chief science advisor Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who warns the ever-grave U.S. President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover) just in time. In a joint effort with various billionaires and governments, the world comes together to build arks in the Himalayas, but only a select few of the planet’s population and wildlife will fit on the arks. Regardless, the president’s chief of staff, Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt), secures spots for the world’s elite on these ships, because there’s always a slimy character like this in disaster movies.

Most of the action revolves around Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), a failed writer turned limo driver for Russian bazillionaire Yuri Karpov (Zlatko Buric). Curtis’ ex-wife (Amanda Peet) and their two kids (Liam James and Morgan Lily) now live with the nice “other man” Gordon (Tom McCarthy), much to Curtis’ dismay. But you can believe that Gordon, along with 99% of the world’s population, gets wiped out, leaving Curtis and his estranged wife to rekindle their love. And why not? After learning about the arks from Harrelson’s wacko character while on vacation in Yellowstone, Curtis proves himself a superhero faced with the task of saving his family. He out-drives an earthquake and outruns the blast path of a super-volcano—impressive for a writer. Most of the bit characters in the movie are set up only to help Curtis along on his quest to reach China, and most die while carrying out their Good Samaritan deeds.

So what’s all destroyed in the movie? California falls into the ocean. All of America is covered by toxic ash. Las Vegas falls into a hellish crevasse, sparking a moment of irony, while Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statue and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome topple over, killing many God-fearing Christians in the process. Emmerich spares no one, but he takes particular joy in depicting Christian icons crumbling. The John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier gets carted by a giant wave and crashes into the White House, marking the second time Emmerich has destroyed the president’s home. Tibet is waterlogged by a tsunami. And when it’s all over, the planet is covered in water.

Emmerich and his co-writer Harald Kloser arrange a series of near-escapes and ridiculous resolutions. The clichés are piled on top of one another in an almost comic fashion. There are only so many times a character can say “My God!” or “You have to take a look at this, sir” before the audience starts laughing. But there’s also the impression that the movie is fully aware of its own corniness, and we’re in on the joke. Aside from John Cusack outrunning planetary calamities, the movie’s many other characters outrun their own waves and explosions and what-have-yous in airplanes and cars and on foot. It’s all preposterous but meant in the escapist disaster movie spirit. Several shots feature a bystander gawking in awe of some terrible force approaching them, a familiar shot for Emmerich (borrowed from Spielberg). Plenty of nice characters undeservedly die, while irredeemable jerks are fully redeemed. And in the end, there’s an inappropriate feeling of hopefulness among the survivors, only because dwelling on the fact that virtually everyone on Earth is dead would be a major bummer.

The computerized special effects throughout are big and bold and staggering, and they should be since Emmerich’s budget was a reported $250 million. He uses that money to carry out his ultimate goal of obliterating the Earth, which has been a long time coming as those of us who have followed his work know. The action scenes unfold with clarity, so we always know what’s what, unlike the majority of over-edited blockbusters. Some of it looks shoddy and stupid, but the acting for this sort of drivel is above average, so the few CGI missteps are easily forgiven. Cusack and Ejiofor are both too good for the material, but they’re welcome protagonists. Harrelson, after his unexpected turn in Zombieland earlier this year, gives another memorable-if-throwaway performance. And Platt does a nice job making the audience despise him.

Defending Emmerich’s latest movie comes with some difficulty for this critic, since the director’s work is generally empty commercial fare, and the majority of his movies are unwatchably bad upon revisitation. So let’s be clear: This isn’t a “good movie,” but it’s an entertaining one. 2012 is trash, to be sure, but it’s well-assembled trash that’s bigger and better than anything Emmerich has made before. Shockingly, despite its 2-hour-and-40-minute runtime, this pageant of devastation keeps our interest for the duration. Never mind logic, because it’s defied in almost every scene. It’s even sort of fun to point out the clichés throughout. Thinking about it too much is missing the point of this mindless exhibition. Just sit back, eat your popcorn, and watch Emmerich destroy the world. Why else would you see a movie like this?

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Common sense media reviewers.

Massive global destruction -- not for worriers.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Despite the relentlessly depressing, gruesome subj

The characters aren't very deep, but some of them

Not much blood and gore (one character gets his le

One character is a plastic surgeon who does breast

Fairly light use of strong language, although ther

A wealthy character brags about his fancy new Bent

Two minor adult characters are shown drinking. One

Positive Messages

Despite the relentlessly depressing, gruesome subject matter and millions (billions?) of deaths, the film's main point is that family is ultimately the most important thing in life. Several characters risk their lives or well-being for family members, and one character tries (tragically) to contact his family too late. Certain selfish characters are redeemed by saving family members, and the movie makes a point of mentioning that the most selfish character of all has no family. Aside from that, a few characters look beyond family to try to rescue total strangers as well.

Positive Role Models

The characters aren't very deep, but some of them still demonstrate marked heroism and selflessness. Hero Jackson Curtis previously ignored his family in favor of his career, but he returns to them during the disaster, learning how to connect with, love, and forgive them. Later, he risks his life to save thousands of people. Other characters clash over methods by which to choose who's rescued, with some seeing only the bottom line, but others arguing that everyone has a right to live. The president shows heroism and self sacrifice.

Violence & Scariness

Not much blood and gore (one character gets his leg gouged in a giant gear), but the massive destruction results in countless anonymous deaths. The movie does focus dramatically on certain known faces as they meet their terrible fates, but it rarely stops to linger on them. Two children watch as their father falls to his death and another character is ground up in some machinery. Smaller moments of hostility at a boxing match, and a character punches another character in the face. A mass suicide is mentioned on a news report.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

One character is a plastic surgeon who does breast implants. He meets one of his patients, and they mention her surgery several times. Gordon and Kate briefly discuss "making a baby" of their own. Kate and Jackson kiss once, and there's a near-kiss between Adrien and the president's daughter.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Fairly light use of strong language, although there's at least one "f--k," a few uses of "s--t," and other words like "damn," "ass," "hell," "goddamn," and "oh my God." One character flips another one off.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

A wealthy character brags about his fancy new Bentley. Pull-Ups diapers are discussed and shown.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Two minor adult characters are shown drinking. One takes his first drink in 25 years when he discovers that the world is going to end.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that director Roland Emmerich 's 2012 is an intense, violent disaster movie, with billions of anonymous characters getting killed during massive scenes of destruction (earthquakes, tsunamis, and more). Although the tone is mainly exciting, the relentless devastation could terrify or depress many viewers (both kids and grown-ups), especially those who've been through natural disasters themselves. In other words, this is no movie for kids anxious about the state of the world. Fans of the genre will find some of the effects truly impressive, but there's not much in the way of character or plot depth. Expect a little bit of kissing, drinking, and swearing (including "s--t"). All that and it's almost three hours long. ... To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parents say (40)
Kids say (174)

Based on 40 parent reviews

What's the Story?

When the sun suddenly begins bombarding Earth with a higher neutrino count, heating up the planet's core, it all-too-quickly leads to massive natural disasters -- from earthquakes to tsunamis -- and even shifting of the north and south poles. A secret project is underway in Tibet to build "arks" to rescue a certain number of people, but most of the seats have been reserved for the world's richest and most important people. While scientist Adrian Helmsley ( Chiwetel Ejiofor ) collects data and fights against greed and corruption, small-time Los Angeles author Jackson Curtis ( John Cusack ) tries to rescue his ex-wife ( Amanda Peet ) and their two kids, get them to Tibet, and secure them seats on one of the arks. But can he do this impossible task in time?

Is It Any Good?

At best, it's a nearly three-hour film packed with several tons of clichés whose best features are explosions and general destruction. At worst, it's a gruesome, depressing subject as viewed from the seat of a passing roller coaster.

Disaster movies are usually very popular and have long managed to thrill plenty of people with their huge scale and awesome special effects. Since 2012 (which is tied to a much-debated Mayan prophecy that supposedly names that year as the one in which the world will end) is one of the biggest and most spectacular to date, it will no doubt follow suit -- and, in terms of visual effects and clear, exciting filmmaking, it is well done. And the impressive, appealing cast does its level best to read through the third-rate dialogue without too much eye-rolling. But anyone looking for character depth, powerful emotional content, intelligence, poetic images, or personal expression of any kind is advised to look elsewhere.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the movie's destruction and violence . Much of it is of a sci-fi/fantasy nature, but if you stop to think about it, the enormity and frequency of it can be overwhelming. Is this kind of violence more or less upsetting than gory horror movies?

One of the movie's major themes is the importance of family. Does that come through amid the chaos and destruction? Did the movie make you feel closer to your own family?

Why do you think the wealthiest and most important people were chosen for seats on the arks? Should other people have gotten a chance? What would have been a better way to go about the process?

Do you think a disaster like this could occur? If so, is it better to try and prepare or better not to worry about something we can't control?

Movie Details

In theaters : November 13, 2009
On DVD or streaming : March 2, 2010
Cast : Amanda Peet , Chiwetel Ejiofor , John Cusack
Director : Roland Emmerich
Inclusion Information : Black actors
Studio : Columbia Tristar
Genre : Science Fiction
Run time : 158 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : intense disaster sequences and some language.
Last updated : March 10, 2024

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Apr 30, 2024

“2012” – setting a new standard for disaster films

Review by Jason Thompson

Back in 1996, Roland Emmerich probably never would have guessed that the film “Independence Day” would define his career. Emmerich is still trying to destroy the heck out of the world in his new opus simply titled “2012.”

In 2009, a scientist discovers that the Earth’s temperature is rising due to something about neutrinos being too high. He calls upon colleague Dr. Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to help him solve the mystery behind this strange phenomenon. They calculate that Earth’s temperature will continue to rise until the world as we know it starts breaking apart like a bad science project.

This takes us to the titular year, and down-on-his-luck writer/limo driver Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) wants a relationship with his estranged son and daughter. As any good dad would do, Jackson takes them camping, but coincidentally discovers part of the government’s cover-up of Earth’s impending disaster. After that, “2012” is all about three things: death, destruction, and good old-fashioned global chaos.

It’s hard to discuss acting when disaster films are involved. Much like slasher films, the audience only demands that the actors look believable while running away from the doom chasing them. Luckily, the cast of “2012” is up to the challenge.

As the biggest name in the cast, Cusack’s performance in this film shows a constant cross between fear and disbelief. I guess I would look frightened yet befuddled too if entire cities were breaking apart behind me like giant slabs of Styrofoam. On the other side of the nobility coin is the criminally underrated Ejiofor. He has been a leading man-in-waiting for a few years now, starting back with “Dirty Pretty Things” and continuing with films like “Inside Man” and “Children of Men.” If Cusack is the perspective of the audience, Ejiofor is both its beating heart and its conscience.

Standout supporting turns from Oliver Platt and Thandie Newton elevate the film greatly and give its emotional moments just as much urgency as the carnage that follows behind. The true hero of this film, however, is none other than Mr. Woody Harrelson. Between “No Country For Old Men,” “Zombieland,” and now “2012,” Woody’s back and stealing scenes more than ever. Good to have you back, Woody!

If you have seen the trailer or any footage of this film, and you’re not on board, don’t bother. The film is two and a half hours of global obliteration. “2012” sets a new standard for disaster films and may require a second viewing just to take in the full panorama of its destructive CGI splendor. Sure, the film is a monument to impossibility, and the plot is convoluted beyond discussion, but we don’t watch these films for their logic. We watch because we love the spectacle of it all.

For all the carnage, however, the character moments ground the film just enough to suppress the cheesiness the film could have had. If a good disaster flick is what you crave, you’ll get your fill in spades with “2012”

Jason Thompson is an aspiring screenwriter from Los Angeles, California. Catch him anytime at his blog www.mysmallpotatoes.wordpress.com .

Review also appearing in the Berthoud Weekly Surveyor.

11 Comments

Thanks for the great review Jason! I appreciate your honesty.

“Sure, the film is a monument to impossibility, and the plot is convoluted beyond discussion, but we don’t watch these films for their logic. We watch because we love the spectacle of it all.”

So true! Going to the movies isn’t always about digging up some deeper meaning. Sometimes it’s just cool to watch things blow up and come tumbling down.

I am a little surprised John Cusack took this role. I think it might have been better suited for someone like Keanu Reeves. 🙂

I just have to put my two cents in here. The “OH COME ON!” factor in this movie is really high!!! The special effects are great but there is absolutely no feeling for anything that is going on. The film is riddled with every cliche that can be put in it! The good guys are perfect, the bad guy is perfectly bad and the destruction of all the people on Earth is treated like simple eye candy. If I ever get stranded in the middle of the Himalayas, at night, during a raging snow storm, I hope I can walk a couple of yards and have an old truck pick me up! I hope my plastic surgeon boyfriend can get me out of an ash cloud with his new found flying skills! That’s only two of the “OH COME ONS!” that bugged me about this film. I think there are about 20 more! By hour two I had gone numb and kept looking at my watch. The end is nothing but a Titanic style drama that bored me to tears. And the cherry on the top of this mess is the last line!!!! (I won’t give that away here). I like a little believable story with my disaster movie – this had nothing plausible. I’m sorry – this movie STINKS!!!!

Fantastic review! My husband really wants to see this movie… I’m ambivalent, but I know to enjoy a disaster orgy like this, one should see it in the theater.

I enjoyed this movie very much. It had me on the edge of my seat, AND holding the hand of my best friend next to me. One of the reasons why it really got to me was because I live with my one year old brother and my single mother. All I had to do was place myself in their positions and I basically cried and shook throughout the whole movie. I believe all things are possible and I have an extremely opened mind. This movie is NOT for people who live in a black in white set world. People who believe in all shades of gray, I hope to see your bottom planted on the theater seat. The effects were very real, which amazed me, and I enjoyed the family feel of it, even though the world was coming to an end. I loved the fact that it greatly expressed the importance of love for all people and how in any disaster we need to come together as a family. I think this movie is very under rated, and I feel that people who just wanted to see crashes and booms were slightly disappointed and probably felt that the real message in the story was forced upon them, leaving them bored, as expressed by the person above me. I think this movie is worth a watch and I think it requires your full attention and open mind.

Saw this film with Heidi’s folks. I was waiting for Carmie to cover her eyes and hide but we just ended up poking each other in the ribs and laughing. I saw this movie having already read Heidi’s review and Diane’s remarks. There were certainly so many “Oh come on” moments – like the airplane flying successfully through the volcanic ash cloud. I think the ash should have cut the engines….but, “oh well”. We all left the theater thoroughly entertained, however. Does that mean it won’t take much to make us happy during our trip to Italy coming up in April?

Your so right Mickey! I went to this movie to just be cooperative. 🙂 Ended up having a lot of fun. Totally agree with Diane and her “Oh come on” factor being very high in this movie but…It was just a no brainer fun time. Lots of good movie effects that made you feel like you right there. Yes Mickey I’m very easily entertained. I will be “happy dancing” across Italy.

And yet another apocalyptic movie, i am really wondering where this is heading. Ah, nice blog by the way 😉

The “Movie” 2012 was so bad as in pathetic. Great special effects. Jubba The Hutt of Star Wars fame should have been part of the cast.

A new rookie pilot with a couple of hours under his belt flies a sophisticated twin engine aircraft as though he was a member of the Blue Angels.

How he even got the aircraft started is also bogus.

I turned it off out of respect for those like myself that actually flew for a major airline. I do not mind fantasy but this was far beyond that.

Two Toes Down.

Thanks for stopping in Robert. Perhaps they should have consulted a real pilot??

“Two toes down.” — A great way of letting us know how you really feel! I might steal that from you. 🙂 Thanks again for checking in and hope to see you again in the future.

In case someone is wondering, Jubba is Jabba’s younger antagonistic “Weight Watching” brother.

2012 is well made spectacle. It’s finely crafted trash. It’s in on the joke, and it’s laughing along with you.

2012 Review

13 Nov 2009

158 minutes

For decades, Cecil B. DeMille was Hollywood’s go-to megalomaniac when it came to big, simplistic, spectacular devastation, with side-orders of religion and/or patriotism. In the 1970s, Irwin Allen became Master of Disaster, and ships sank, buildings burned, volcanoes blew, cities fell and killer bees swarmed. Now, Roland Emmerich presides over the carnival of destruction, commanding huge budgets, wilfully ignoring scientific advisors to keep the plot boiling (for future reference, sudden continental drift probably will affect your cell-phone reception — but not in this film) and cracking a whip over slave-like hordes of computer-programmers piling up the pixels which render the unbelievable photo-realistic.

DeMille’s specialty was historical/religious epic and Allen perfected the ‘disaster movie’, but a necessary escalation means Emmerich has to resort to science fiction to slake audiences’ need for destruction on a super-colossal scale. Godzilla, in which a monster only attacks New York, is one of his smaller films. Having written off the beginnings of human history in 10,000 BC, Emmerich now turns to the immediate and terrifying future and tries to outdo the genocidal upheavals he wrought through alien invasion in Independence Day and global warming in The Day After Tomorrow.

The disaster cycle of the ‘70s had to escalate too — after an ocean liner and a skyscraper had been trashed in CinemaScope, the stakes had to be upped to an entire city in Earthquake and a continent or so in Meteor.

2012 has a less easy-to-sell (and, therefore, harder to worry about) concept than earlier moviemageddons — impending doom here isn’t just one big thing, but a matter of solar flares, planetary alignments, earthquakes and big waves, with Biblical overtones of the Flood.

What it boils down to is all the disasters from all the other disaster movies happening in one long film. Emmerich tosses off towering infernos by the dozen in single shots, throws Poseidon-like ocean liners (and aircraft carriers) into maelstroms like toys in a bathtub, has entire cities levelled by quakes or swept away by tidal waves (LA, Vegas and DC get it worst, this time), transforms a scenic national park into a volcano, and swamps the Himalayas with a tsunami which makes Peter Weir’s Last Wave seem like a ripple on a duck pond.

As expected, the script is a load of old cods, delivered in a hurry by the wildly overqualified likes of John Cusack (everyman Dad), Amanda Peet (underwritten ex-wife), Chiwetel Ejiofor (scientist with integrity), Danny Glover (humane Prez), Thandie Newton (cute First Daughter), Oliver Platt (weasely politico), Woody Harrelson (ranting doomsayer) and George Segal (twinkly old-timer). We get glutinous sentiment, weirdly appropriate low comedy, non-denominational religious mutterings (though the Sistine Chapel cracks and the Vatican collapses) and doses of dignified self-sacrifice, my-kids-must-live heroism and cutthroat politicking from characters competing to secure first-class passage on the Ark. Yes, there’s a cute yapping dog whose survival seems more important than the entire population of India.

Many times, cars and planes escape from disasters that seem to chase them off-screen as whole cities fall down or blow up. And the finale brings on an impressive Ark, and plays ridiculous suspense games as the fate of humanity depends on John Cusack holding his breath underwater and ungumming the grinding-works of huge doors.

Roland Emmerich on the set of Independence Day Resurgence

Movies | 26 06 2016

Movies | 16 11 2009

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Movie Review: '2012'

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2012: Movie Review

Hannah Goodwyn

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Known for his disaster movies, director Roland Emmerich creates a picture of the world’s future when it’s all said and done in his latest film, 2012 . According to the movie, the Mayan calendar ends on Dec. 21, 2012, predicting that the world will end in environmental chaos on that day.

Designed to be a doomsday thriller, 2012 is more of a disaster than a success. The weak story drowns out its spectacular special effects. To say that it was not entertaining is an understatement; the constant presence of digitally-created death and destruction, foul language, and sarcasm toward faith makes it unlikable.

THE MOVIE IN A MINUTE

Mayan predictions seem to be coming true as scientists discover that the Sun is heating up the Earth’s core to a cataclysmic degree. Jackson Curtis, a divorced, unreliable dad, stumbles upon the U.S. government’s top secret testing facility and a conspiracy-theorist living in the woods of Yellowstone National Park. With the world in the dark about what’s going on, catastrophic natural disasters maim the planet, resulting in the deaths of millions. As the world shifts toward its inevitable end, Curtis’ and his family, along with the chosen few, struggle to find safety before it’s too late.

WHERE IT FALLS APART

Emmerich’s digital effects team crafted a world in utter chaos. Some of the visuals literally take your breath away – streets and buildings being easily split in two, volcanoes erupting spontaneously, and tsunamis washing away whole cities. Supposedly, neutrinos from the Sun have heated up the Earth's core causing it to break down. Earth Crust Displacement results as land masses begin to shift.

Unfortunately, the outstanding special effects go a little too far. A few of the totally unbelievable shots are border-line silly. At one point, Curtis’ plane flies sideways through crumbling buildings as California falls apart just before sliding into the Pacific Ocean. As Curtis miraculously outruns Yellowstone’s super volcano, the back of his RV is blown off, leaving a fiery frame. After surviving that ordeal, he falls into a fault that should have consumed him. Yet, just moments later, his hand reaches out of the abyss and he pulls himself to safety. And all of this happens within the first half of the movie.

Beyond the fantastic, yet overdone, special effects, 2012 doesn’t have much going for it. The story is a bit weak and too predictable. A broken family finds the will to love again after a traumatic turn of events pushes them to realize they need each other. Even more than that, the story takes a turn for the worse when even as millions are dying, a dog is saved. Animals and works of art are carried on board the “arks” to safety. It’s also not exactly clear why we should focus on and care about Curtis’ family while so many others are carelessly tossed around by tidal waves and earthquakes. Speaking purely on entertainment value, this movie could have been stronger with a more significant character in the lead, like the scientist who initially warned the U.S. government, Dr. Adrian Helmsley. Even his part is flawed given his “let’s have a heart for humanity” speech as the tsunami barrels down on them. Having the ex-husband and wife passionately kiss minutes after her boyfriend dies also was a poor choice.

Woody Harrelson’s portrayal of the conspiracy theorist is admirable. He fits the character perfectly. The acting offered by John Cusack and others is acceptable, but not memorable. The underscoring tone of the film includes a hint of sarcasm toward the Christian faith. Christian monuments topple over, as an Islamic place of worship is spared . Those who turn to prayer, specifically the U.S. President and the Italian Prime Minister, are tainted with sarcastic comments.

The weak story, less than remarkable characters, and use of profanity and obscenity make this a movie unworthy of your time and money. Although Oliver Platt’s character illustrates the danger of selfishness, 2012 doesn’t deliver a redemptive message. It’s sad, but even with the intense special effects, watching people fall to their deaths and the world fall apart got a little boring. Based on absurd “predictions” that the Mayans didn’t even necessarily agree with, 2012 falters, landing it into the “empty bowl” category.

About The Author

Hannah Goodwyn served as a Senior Producer for CBN.com, managing and writing for the award-winning website. After her undergraduate studies at Christopher Newport University, Hannah went on to study Journalism at the graduate level. In 2005, she graduated summa cum laude with her Master's from Regent University and was honored with an Outstanding Student Award. From there, Hannah began work as a content producer for CBN.com. For ten years, she acted as the managing producer for the website's Family and Entertainment sections. A movie buff, Hannah felt right at home working as CBN.com's More

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A frustrated writer struggles to keep his family alive when a series of global catastrophes threatens to annihilate mankind.
Dr. Adrian Helmsley, part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect on the earth of radiation from unprecedented solar storms, learns that the earth's core is heating up. He warns U.S. President Thomas Wilson that the crust of the earth is becoming unstable and that without proper preparations for saving a fraction of the world's population, the entire race is doomed. Meanwhile, writer Jackson Curtis stumbles on the same information. While the world's leaders race to build "arks" to escape the impending cataclysm, Curtis struggles to find a way to save his family. Meanwhile, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of unprecedented strength wreak havoc around the world. — Jim Beaver <[email protected]>
Only a few years after the American geologist Adrian Helmsley's warnings of an impending global Armageddon by the year 2012, the Earth is devastated from end to end by cataclysmic natural disasters. As the President of the U.S. along with other leaders of the G8 Nations complete their secret project in Tibet to build colossal arks to sustain humanity, at the same time, the struggling Los Angeles author, Jackson Curtis, goes through hell and back to reunite with his ex-wife and their two kids. Inevitably, the unfathomable catastrophes are rapidly escalating, while Jackson strives to give his family a future in Tibet, however, can he make it in time? — Nick Riganas
Geophysicist Adrian Helmsley officially visits India's Dr. Satnam Tsurutani, his pretty wife, Aparna, and their son. From thence, he is led to the world's deepest copper mine, where he finds evidence that the Earth's crust is heating up faster than expected. He quickly collects evidence, and presents it before the President of the United States. Expecting the news to hit leading media, he is instead stunned when he learns that the powers-that-be have no intention of publicizing this catastrophe, and are intent on saving wealthy families that can shell out a billion Euros per family on four mammoth arks - without realizing that if the Earth is indeed headed for the prophetic self-destruction on 21 December 2012 - how can arks and it's wealthy inhabitants survive? — rAjOo ([email protected])
Several years before, geologist Adrian Helmsley comes across information that shows the world will come to an end in 2012. No announcement is made but the G8 countries begin to prepare for the event. Jack Curtis is a divorced and a less than successful writer. While on a camping trip with his children in Yosemite, he meets Charlie Frost, who is preaching that the end of the world is at hand. A series of events leads Curtis to believe what Frost has told him and with his family, heads for China where the industrialized countries have been working on a response to the impending disaster. — garykmcd
In 2009, an American geologist named Adrian Helmsley (Ryan Mcdonland) visits astrophysicist Dr. Satnam Tsurutani (Jimi Mistry) in India and learns that neutrinos from a massive solar flare are causing the temperature of the Earth's core to rapidly increase. Arriving at a party in Washington, D.C, Helmsley presents his info to White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser who takes him to meet the President. In 2010, U.S. President Thomas Wilson and other international leaders begin a secret project to ensure humanity's survival. More than 400,000 people are chosen to board enormous "arks" constructed at Cho Ming, Tibet, in the southwest Chinese Himalayas. A Buddhist monk named Nima is evacuated while his brother Tenzin joins the Ark project. Additional funding is raised by selling tickets for EUR1 billion per person. By 2011, valuable items are moved to the arks with the help of art expert and First Daughter Dr. Laura Wilson (Thandie Newton). In 2012, Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is a science fiction writer in Los Angeles who works as a limousine driver for Russian billionaire Yuri Karpov (Zlatko Buric). Jackson's former wife Kate (Amanda Peet), and their children Noah and Lilly, live with Kate's boyfriend, plastic surgeon Gordon Silberman (Thomas McCarthy). Jackson takes Noah and Lilly camping in Yellowstone National Park. When they arrive at the park, they find the park fenced off by the military who arrived. They cross over the fence but are captured by the U.S. Army and taken in to see Helmsley, who recognizes Jackson after he published his recent book, Farewell Atlantis. After they are released from military custody, they meet Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson), who hosts a radio show from the park (also the person who spotted them enter the restricted area). Later that night, after the military evacuates from Yellowstone, Jackson watches Charlie's video of Charles Hapgood's theory that polar shifts and the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar predict that the 2012 phenomenon will occur. Charlie also tells Jackson that those who discovered this and plotted to inform the public were killed in various accidents. After an earthquake hits Los Angeles, the family returns home. Jackson grows suspicious and rents a Cessna 340 to rescue his family. He collects his family and Gordon as the Earth crust displacement begins with a magnitude 10.9 earthquake, and they narrowly escape Los Angeles as California collapses into the Pacific Ocean. As millions of people die in earthquakes worldwide, the group flies to Yellowstone to retrieve a map from Charlie, escaping as the Yellowstone Caldera erupts. Charlie stays behind to broadcast the eruption and is killed. Learning that the arks are in China, the group lands in Las Vegas to find a larger plane. They find Yuri, his twin sons Alec and Oleg, girlfriend Tamara and pilot Sasha. Helmsley, Anheuser, and Laura Wilson are aboard Air Force One where they are heading to the arks. President Wilson remains in Washington, D.C. to address the nation one last time. With the Vice President dead and the Speaker of the House missing, Anheuser appoints himself Acting Commander in Chief even though he is not in the presidential line of succession. Back in Las Vegas, the group steals an Antonov An-500 aircraft, and they depart for China as the Yellowstone ash cloud engulfs the city. President Wilson is later killed by a mega tsunami that sends the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy crashing into the White House. When the group arrive in China, the plane runs out of fuel and crashes in the mountains, killing Sasha, while the others make a narrow escape. They are then spotted by helicopters from the Chinese army. Yuri and his sons, possessing tickets, are taken to the arks, leaving the Curtis family and Gordon behind along with Tamara because Yuri knows she had an affair with Sasha. The remaining group are picked up by Nima and taken to the arks with his grandparents. They stow away on Ark 4, where the United States contingent is aboard, with the help of Tenzin. As a mega tsunami approaches the site, an impact driver becomes lodged in the gears of the ark's hydraulic doors, preventing a boarding gate from closing, which in turn prevents the ship from starting its engines. In the ensuing chaos, Yuri, Gordon and Tamara are killed, and Ark 4 is set adrift. Jackson and Noah dislodge the impact driver and the crew regains control of the ark before it collides with Mount Everest. Jackson rejoins with his family, and he and Kate reconcile. As flood waters from the tsunamis slowly recede, the arks travel to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, where the Drakensberg Mountain range has now emerged. Helmsley starts a relationship with Laura while Jackson and Kate rekindle their relationship.

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Saturday, may 1, 2021, unit-5: reading-ii movie review: “2012” is a perfect disaster.

Unit-5

Reading-II Movie Review: “2012” is a Perfect Disaster

a. Who is Roland Emmerich?

Ans- Roland Emmerich is the director of the movie ‘2012’.

b. When was the movie “2012” released?

Ans- The movie was released on November 13, 2009.

c. What misconception is captured in the beginning of the movie?

Ans- The misconception ‘2012 as the date of humanity’s doom’ is captured in the beginning of the movie.

d. Why does audience not feel bored while watching the movie?

Ans- Audience do not feel bored while watching the movie because of its right storytelling.

e. What makes “2012” the perfect movie?

Ans- Movie’s actors, storytelling, and dialogue make ‘2012’ the perfect movie.

f. What are the differences between “2012” and other movies?

Ans- Other movies have explosions; “2012” has an atom bomb size detonation that wipes Yellowstone off the map. Other movies have earthquakes; “2012” sends California sinking, in flames into the sea. Other movies kill thousands; “2012” kills zillions.

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Unit 5 Reading II |Movie Review 2012 is a perfect Disaster Exercise | Class 10 English

movie review 2012: a perfect disaster class 10 english exercise.

Vocabulary in use

Rewrite the following sentences choosing the correct phrases/words from the list below for the underlined words..

boom, unbelievable, misinterpretation, extremely large number of people, a protagonist, the people who speak American Indian language in Central America and Mexico, movie reviewer, broadens, appealing

a. The film critic awards four stars to the film ‘2012”.

=> movie reviewer

b.Emmerich fleshes out a bit of pseudo-history and some pseudo-science in “2012”.

=> broadens

c.John Cusack is in a leading role .

=>a protagonist

c.“2012” kills zillions without breaking a sweat.

=>extremely large number of people

d. According to the critic, “2012” is enormously satisfactory , amazingly accomplished and irresistible.

=>appealing

e.The calendar of the Mayans had a misapprehension of “2012” as the date of humanity’s doom.

=> the people who speak American Indian language in Central America and Mexico, misinterpretation

f. The special effects of the movie are incredible .

=> unbelievable.

g. In “2012’, the world ends with a bang .

2. reading comprehension, i. read the movie review, and decide whether the following statements are true or false., a. “2012” is a film about the disaster that kills a great number of people., b. the director of the movie has also contributed in its writing part., c. chiwetel ejiofor played the role of a doctor..

=> False

d. Mark Gordon is one of the producers of “2012”.

E. the critic finds the special effects of the movie incredible., movie review 2012 is a perfect disaster question answers, a. who is roland emmerich.

Ans: Roland Emmerich is the director of the movie “2012”.

b. When was the movie “2012” released?

Ans: The movie was released on 13th November 2009.

c. What misconception is captured in the beginning of the movie?

Ans: The Mayan calendar picks “2012” as the date of humanity's extinction is the misconception captured at the beginning of the movie 2012.

d. Why do the audience not feel bored while watching the movie?

Ans: The audience does not feel bored while watching the movie because the actors, the story the dialogue and the special effects are fantastic.

e. What makes “2012” the perfect movie?

Ans: The way things are presented in the movie “2012” makes it the perfect movie.

f. What are the differences between “2012” and other movies?

Ans: Other movies have explosions; “2012” has an atom bomb size detonation that wipes Yellowstone off the map. Other movies have earthquakes; “2012” sends California sinking in flames into the sea. Other movies kill thousands; “2012” kills zillions without breaking a sweat.

3. Follow-up activity

Note down the major points of the movie review. paraphrase them. develop this into a paragraph with a suitable title, topic sentence, supporting sentences and a concluding sentence., 2012 movie summary.

In “2012” Roland Emmerich creates a picture of the world’s future. According to the movie, the Mayan calendar ends on Dec. 21, 2012, predicting that the world will end on that day. Catastrophic natural disasters damage the planet, resulting in the deaths of millions. The movie is the greatest achievement in Emmerich’s career as a destroyer of the world. It is a four-star movie. It has spectacular special effects. The best movie of its kind ever made .

B. Time for grammar

1. read the school uniform code, and encircle the modal verbs..

The school uniform codes are important to maintain a sense of oneness and unity. Therefore, students must come to school in their stipulated uniform. They ma y wear coloured clothes of their choice on their birthdays but they have to maintain the regulations for sportswear, formal wear and Friday clothing accordingly. As the bottom line for clothing is comfort and decency, students are not allowed to wear jewellery or make-up. Similarly, hair must be of natural colour, decent length and style. Next, they should trim their nails. Furthermore, they need to wear trousers and skirts according to specifications. Lastly, they ought to follow the instructions of the discipline incharge. Breaching uniform codes may result in detention.

2. Imagine Kunsang has visited Manisha. What might have Manisha told her nephew? Complete the following sentences with suitable expressions of advice, suggestion or warning.

a. Kunsang, you mustn’t hurt your parents’ feelings .

b. You have to think about your parents .

c. You ought not to give up studying now .

d. If I were you, I would complete my high school education .

e. You aren’t allowed to do as you wish at this age .

f. You may go to town after completing your high school .

g. You are not supposed to leave school now .

C. Follow-up activity

walking on foot along the roads may sometimes be dangerous. fill in the blanks with appropriate modal verbs to give a sense of pedestrians’ safety..

The roads can be dangerous for pedestrians. Even for those who are not driving, it is important to be aware that traffic could be approaching from unexpected directions. Apart from motorways, it’s not illegal crossing the road at any point. It is advisable to use crossings, some of them controlled by traffic lights, whenever you can. You ought to cross the road when the green signal is on but, if the light is flashing, don’t start to cross.

There are crossing points known as zebra crossings which have black and white road markings and orange flashing beacons at each side of the road.

Drivers should give way to pedestrians on the crossing. Pedestrians of developed cities can also use subways and overhead bridges for their safety.

Don ’ t forget, pedestrians must not walk along or cross any motorways at any time.

Class 10 English Unit 5 Giving advice and warnings Listening Exercise (with audio file)

Engage yourself

Look at the picture below and answer the following questions.

a. Are you fond of reading books?

=> Yes, I am. / No, I am not.

b. How often do you visit a library?

=> I go there every day/ once a week.

c. How do you find a book of your choice in a library?

=> I go to the particular section. /I simply ask it from the librarian.

B. Study time

1. Listen to the conversation, and make a list of different sections of a library.

a. Library display section

b. Periodical section

c. Reference section

d. Biography section

2. Listen to the conversation again, and answer the following questions.

a. Who advised Anjali to get a book of her interest?

=> Her teacher advised Anjali to get a book of her interest.

b. How often does Anjali read reference books?

=> Anjali seldom reads reference books.

c. What is the periodical section for?

=> The periodical section is for m agazines and newspapers

d. In which section of the library are new books found?

=> New books are found in the l ibrary Display Section

e. In which section does the student find the biographies?

=> The students find the biographies in the b iography section .

Work in a small group. Discuss the rules and regulations of your school library. Then write them on a plain sheet of paper and share it with the class.

=> Rules and Regulations to be followed in school library

B. Time for writing

1. write a dialogue between two students who have distinct views on the qualities of a captain or a leader..

2. Write a book/movie review. You may include answers of these questions: Who were the characters/actors? Who published/produced it? Who was the author/director? What was the plot? What problem was highlighted? How was the problem/s solved? What did you like/ dislike about it? Did you like the ending? If you were the author/ director, how would you end the story?

=> Book review on Muna Madan

Book review on I capture the castle

Suppose your maternal uncle is planning to go abroad. Your mother advises him to follow a few dos and don’ts. Prepare a dialogue between your mother and maternal uncle using the given hints. You can add your own points if you like.

better income, better and secured future, risk of fatal diseases, skillful manpower is highly paid, knowledge of different languages is bene fi cial, must go legally, get right information from the government of fi ces, get help from the helpline

=> Dialogue between mother and maternal uncle who is planning to go abroad

Anonymous Thursday, 28 October, 2021 thanks a lot Bro
mada saga Thursday, 26 May, 2022 What are the finest and worst films in the world? How can anyone measure something like that? Surely it's all subjective. But that's what the staff at Reviews of Movies On CinemaHDv2 aim to accomplish. They watch as many movies as they can, from major blockbusters to little indie films, and then rate them https://cinemahdv2.net/reviews-movie-on-cinema-hd/

Netflix’s Latest Thriller Puts a Scandinavian Spin on the Disaster Movie

Sweden has given us a good movie about why you should never visit Sweden.

Having watched their Norwegian neighbors make a decent stab at the Hollywood-style disaster movie with a loosely related trilogy of films about avalanches ( The Wave ), earthquakes ( The Quake ), and oil rig explosions ( The Burning Sea ), Sweden decided to get in on the action themselves last year with The Abyss (or Avgrunden, if you don’t want to get confused with James Cameron’s similarly perilous underwater epic ). And they didn’t have to look far for inspiration, either.

Out now on Netflix six months after being released in Scandinavia, the quasi-blockbuster is set in the real-life Kiruna, the country’s northernmost town, which in 2014 had to slowly start moving three kilometers east due to the threat of mining subsidence. But with the area’s possible structural collapse still decades away, The Abyss is the only chance many of us will get to witness the carnage that may or may not eventually unfold.

This modern-day tale may have sped up the rippling effects of the world’s largest iron ore mine, an apocalyptic development recently covered in the documentary A Brand New World . However, best known for his work within Sweden’s televisual forte – the brooding, rain-soaked, and woolly-jumpered crime dramas known as Nordic noir – director Richard Holm ( The Machinery , Gåsmamman ) is just as interested in the cracks of suburban life. Indeed, apart from the foreshadowing opening scene in which three teenage hikers fatally plummet through the earth, The Abyss’ slow-burning first half plays out more like a family saga.

Portrayed by Tuva Novotny, whose English-language credits include Borg vs McEnroe and Annihilation , workaholic single mom Frigga is juggling her job as the Kiirunavaara mine’s security manager and the rivalry between her new lover Dabir (Kardo Razzazi) and ex-husband Tage (Peter Franzen). Daughter Mika (Felicia Truedsson) and her girlfriend (Tintin Poggatts Sarri) are busy blocking roads in local protests, while son Simon (Edvin Ryding) is rebelling in the wake of his parents’ divorce.

One key player in the serviceable disaster movie/uninvolving family saga.

It’s a move typical of Sweden’s occasional forays into disaster movie territory. Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure and Triangle of Sadness, for example , both centered around, rather than focused on, devastating natural occurrences, and 2018’s The Unthinkable threw elements of surrealism, melodrama, and military conflict into its state of emergency.

Unfortunately, The Abyss doesn’t possess the pitch-black humor of the former: the only real laugh comes when Frigga knocks out a hyperventilating Tage during their underground reconnaissance. And it lacks the compelling characters of the latter, with only the family’s no-nonsense matriarch making any notable impression. Young Royals fans, in particular, will be left disappointed that Ryding, who plays the dashing prince in Netflix’s queer teen drama, is required to do little more than sulk.

The residents of Kiruna run for cover.

Luckily, Holm, who also co-wrote the script with son Robin, fares better when the film finally kicks into gear with the sight of a crooked lamppost and a young toddler nearly pulled into a pit of quicksand. Anyone with a fear of spelunking should prepare for deeply claustrophobic cave scenes that evoke The Descent , The 33, and even, thanks to a stray hand rising from a mountain of rubble, the closing shot of Carrie . Anyone with a severe case of vertigo, meanwhile, should brace for the climactic rescue involving a pulley system, several pretty brutal impalings, and a sinkhole the size of a skyscraper.

Most impressive is the terrifying sequence when all hell breaks loose as the town center is literally rocked to its foundations, with a frustratingly jammed car seatbelt, motherless stroller, and increasingly powerful tsunami of debris and dust all ramping up the tension. It’s clearly evident The Abyss doesn’t have the same budget or wealth of VFX talent at its disposal as the average Tinseltown B-movie, yet it makes the most of its limited resources.

Divorcees Tage and Frigga just before the mining expedition from hell.

And as you’d expect from a nation that prides itself on humility, it doesn’t stretch the boundaries of credulity, either. The Abyss is the kind of lean disaster film that gets in and out without unnecessarily destroying any major landmarks or obliterating entire populations. Its most destructive set-piece lasts barely five minutes, and while there are a handful of notable fatalities, the body count is far from cataclysmic.

The Roland Emmerichs of this world can rest assured the Swedes aren’t going to muscle in on their territory any time soon. But for those who prefer their disaster flicks without so much bombast, then this abyss is worth peeking into.

This article was originally published on Feb. 19, 2024

Science Fiction

IMAGES

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2012

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COMMENTS

2012 movie review & film summary (2009)
It's not so much that the Earth is destroyed, but that it's done so thoroughly. "2012," the mother of all disaster movies (and the father, and the extended family) spends half an hour on ominous set-up scenes (scientists warn, strange events occur, prophets rant and of course a family is introduced) and then unleashes two hours of cataclysmic special events hammering the Earth relentlessly.
Review: As a Disaster Film, '2012' Succeeds
Review: As a Disaster Film, '2012' Succeeds. ... A movie still from the new film "2012" depicting the end of the world. (Image credit: Columbia Pictures) ... but the 2012 angle made a perfect ...
2012 (2009)
2012: Directed by Roland Emmerich. With John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandiwe Newton. A frustrated writer struggles to keep his family alive when a series of global catastrophes threatens to annihilate mankind.
2012 (film)
2012 is a 2009 American epic science fiction disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich, written by Emmerich and Harald Kloser, and stars John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Oliver Platt, Thandiwe Newton, Danny Glover and Woody Harrelson.Based on the 2012 phenomenon, its plot follows geologist Adrian Helmsley (Ejiofor) and novelist Jackson Curtis (Cusack) as they struggle to survive an ...
2012
Rated: 3/5 May 24, 2023 Full Review Danielle Solzman Solzy at the Movies A good disaster thriller must contain both thrills and massive destruction--2012 has both in great quantity. Jan 26, 2022 ...
'2012' Review: Movie
Cecil B. DeMille would have been pleased. Technically, Emmerich and his crew bring off a series of wonders. The movie hits its peak early on, when Cusack drives a limo through the streets of Los ...
Movie Review
Movie Review - '2012' - When Disaster Strikes (And Strikes, And Strikes) Roland Emmerich's latest cinematic apocalypse posits that the end of the world is due in a little over three years from now.
2012 2009, directed by Roland Emmerich
Yes, '2012' is infantile. Yes, it treats the d. Read the director's guide the perfect disaster movie hereLet's get the sniffy movie-snob protests out of the way. Yes, '2012' is infantile
2012 Movie Review
2012 may be a giant, campy, silly mishmash of disaster movie cliches, but it's also done with such conviction and visceral power that the viewer won't feel cheated for lack of showmanship. 2.5 out ...
2012
2012. Roland Emmerich returns. Globe shudders. D isaster-blaster Roland Emmerich serves us up another of the globally apocalyptic extravaganzas he has made his own, applying his trademark CGI ...
2012 (2009)
Everything you're expecting from 2012 is exactly what you're going to get. Roland Emmerich's magnum opus is the pinnacle of his career. The director's pithy efforts like Independence Day, Godzilla, and The Day After Tomorrow feel like small indie gems in comparison to this overblown, wonderfully destructive piece of demolitionist eye candy. . Utterly impossible by any stretch of the ...
2012
2 h 38 m. Summary Never before has a date in history been so significant to so many cultures, so many religions, scientists, and governments. 2012 is an epic adventure about a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors. [Sony Pictures] Action. Adventure. Sci-Fi. Directed By: Roland Emmerich.
2012 (2009)
bragant 13 November 2009. Warning: Spoilers. 2012 cost 260 million dollars and is 158 minutes long. At roughly 2 million dollars a minute, one might at least expect a thrill-a-second work of exciting entertainment, since one does not go to a Roland Emmerich movie expecting either art or deep meaning.
2012 Movie Review
Two minor adult characters are shown drinking. One. Parents need to know that director Roland Emmerich's 2012 is an intense, violent disaster movie, with billions of anonymous characters getting killed during massive scenes of destruction (earthquakes, tsunamis, and more). Although the tone is mainly exciting, the relentless devastation could ...
"2012"
The film is two and a half hours of global obliteration. "2012" sets a new standard for disaster films and may require a second viewing just to take in the full panorama of its destructive CGI splendor. Sure, the film is a monument to impossibility, and the plot is convoluted beyond discussion, but we don't watch these films for their logic.
2012 Review
12 Nov 2009. Running Time: 158 minutes. Certificate: 12A. Original Title: 2012. For decades, Cecil B. DeMille was Hollywood's go-to megalomaniac when it came to big, simplistic, spectacular ...
Movie Review: '2012'
The Almost Good - There are some suspensions of disbelief that you must take in a disaster movie. Characters always have perfect timing -- in 2012 they expertly dodge falling buildings, escape the ...
2012: Movie Review
Known for his disaster movies, director Roland Emmerich creates a picture of the world's future when it's all said and done in his latest film, 2012. According to the movie, the Mayan calendar ends on Dec. 21, 2012, predicting that the world will end in environmental chaos on that day. Designed to be a doomsday thriller, 2012 is more of a ...
2012 (2009)
After an earthquake hits Los Angeles, the family returns home. Jackson grows suspicious and rents a Cessna 340 to rescue his family. He collects his family and Gordon as the Earth crust displacement begins with a magnitude 10.9 earthquake, and they narrowly escape Los Angeles as California collapses into the Pacific Ocean.
2012 (2009) is a legitimately good film, not just a guilty pleasure
2012 (2009) is a legitimately good film, not just a guilty pleasure. TV/Movies/Fiction. It's not great, but I feel like it's really disrespected just because it's directed by Roland Emmerich. And I don't really understand how you can watch trash like The Day After Tomorrow and Godzilla and then compare it to 2012 which has compelling characters ...
Movie/ Film Review: "2012" is a Perfect Disaster
Movie Review: "2012" is a Perfect Disaster . Director: Roland Emmerich . Producers: Harald Kloser, Mark Gordon and Larry J. Franco . ... "2012" takes the disaster movie - once content simply to threaten the Earth with a comet, or blow up the White House - to its natural conclusion, the literal end of the world. ...
Unit-5: Reading-II Movie Review: "2012" is a Perfect Disaster
Ans- Movie's actors, storytelling, and dialogue make '2012' the perfect movie. f. What are the differences between "2012" and other movies? Ans- Other movies have explosions; "2012" has an atom bomb size detonation that wipes Yellowstone off the map. Other movies have earthquakes; "2012" sends California sinking, in flames ...
Unit 5 Reading II |Movie Review 2012 is a perfect Disaster Exercise
Movie Review 2012: A Perfect disaster Class 10 English Exercise. Vocabulary in use Rewrite the following sentences choosing the correct phrases/words from the list below for the underlined words. boom, unbelievable, misinterpretation, extremely large number of people, a protagonist, the people who speak American Indian language in Central ...
Netflix Just Quietly Released the Year's Best Disaster Thriller
It's a move typical of Sweden's occasional forays into disaster movie territory. Ruben Östlund's Force Majeure and Triangle of Sadness, for example, both centered around, rather than ...

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