The world ends, effects fascinate, plot disappoints in 2012
Posted by The Skyliner on December 2nd, 2009Jennilyn Howell
Copy Editor
Things blow up. Tall buildings crumble like stepped-on crackers. Yellowstone National Park becomes a giant volcano. Los Angeles slides into the ocean, and a huge tidal wave wipes out Washington, D.C. The only thing that 2012 doesn’t have is a shot of the Statue of Liberty cracking into a thousand pieces.
The movie chronicles the end of the world which, according to the Mayans, will occur in the year 2012. In 2009, geologist Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) visits fellow scientist Satnam in India, where he finds out that increased solar activity is gradually cooking the earth from the inside out. Their theory is that the earth’s crust will begin to crumble, causing the continents to change shape and shift location. This will of course result in mass catastrophe.
Helmsley returns to the United States to inform Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt), the White House Chief of Staff, of the situation. Anheuser immediately puts Helmsley in touch with President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover).
Fast forward to 2012. Los Angeles resident Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is awakened by a brief earthquake and the sound of a news correspondent reporting on a mass suicide in a Mayan community in South America. Curtis, a struggling, divorced writer who balances his job as a chauffeur and his responsibilities as a father to Noah and Lilly (Liam James and Morgan Lily, respectively), realizes he is late for picking the kids up for a camping trip.
While on the trip to Yellowstone, Curtis happens upon a radio broadcast where a radical-sounding man is discussing the earthquakes, the cracking of the earth’s crust and how they are related to the end of the world. Curtis and the children then meet Helmsley—and some members of the U.S. Army—after they climb a fence into a restricted area.
Curtis realizes something is really wrong when his ex-wife Kate (Amanda Peet) asks them to come home after a grocery store she was in with her boyfriend cracked in half. The next day, he takes his boss, a Russian millionaire, to the airport so he can get on a flight to escape the end of the world.
Curtis then goes on somewhat of a rampage in an effort to get his family out of Los Angeles. After dodging crumbling streets, speeding over large cracks and dodging falling freeway bridges—all in a limousine—Curtis gets everyone to the airport. Kate’s boyfriend, an inexperienced student pilot, manages to fly them out of the city while performing complex maneuvers between falling buildings.
Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., the government has been working with other countries to organize a way to save humanity. Their plan: build arks and sell tickets costing one billion euros.
Curtis and his family, Curtis’ boss, and Helmsley and the government then struggle to find their way to safety.
2012’s main focus seems to be on special effects, which are incredibly realistic. However, the plot structure seems to crumble a bit. Literally everything is destroyed and because of this, the rising action takes up an unnecessary chunk of the movie’s two-and-a-half hour running time. I kept checking my watch, wondering when the climax would occur.
In contrast, the acting is decent. Curtis ends up being the group’s leader, and Cusack does an excellent job portraying the character’s strength and fear. The iconic Danny Glover shines in his role as President, while Ejiofor plays a fantastic scientist.
In general, 2012 is an interesting study on the “what ifs” of the end of the world. The premise of the movie is interesting enough, and the special effects are outstanding. Its long running time is definitely a downside though, I felt like I was stuck in another Cast Away during the last 45 minutes. I also found 2012 humorous at times because of some trite moments.
If you are more interested in great special effects than you are in plot, see 2012 in the theatre. Otherwise, wait for its DVD release and head to a RedBox. Whatever you do, give yourself about three hours to enjoy the movie.
2012 is rated PG-13 for disaster and language.
Tags: Fall 2009, Vol. 109 - Issue 11