2012

The apocalyptic story is told from two perspectives: characters who know of the impending doom, and others that don't. Failed science fiction writer Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is blissfully ignorant of the end of the world until he accidentally stumbles upon the information. The scientist Adrian Helmsley learns the shocking truth when a colleague in India shows him evidence of extreme seismic activity. The scientist, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, advises the U.S. government of the situation; the Feds spring into action, creating a secret multi-national project to save a select few.

Emmerich is Hollywood's current calamity specialist, presiding over the carnival of destruction, while ironically ignoring his own scientific advisors to keep the plot thick with suspense (for future reference, unexpected continental drift undoubtedly will affect your mobile phone reception). Commanding a massive budget, he cracks the whip over hordes of computer programmers whose artistry takes up over half the movie in this amazing photo-realistic exhibition.

Emmerich has to resort to science fiction to quench audiences' thirst for destruction on a colossal scale. Having written off the early stages of human history in “10,000 BC,” Emmerich now turns his attention to the immediate future and tries to outperform the devastation of alien invasion in “Independence Day” and global warming in “The Day After Tomorrow.”

“2012” is a harder pill to swallow, as impending doom in the film doesn't consist of just one big thing, but rather a combination of solar flares, planetary alignments, earthquakes and colossal waves. It's practically biblical.

“2012” essentially boils down to every disaster movie rolled into one. Emmerich chews off a massive chunk of humanity and spits it out for all to see, throwing gargantuan ocean liners (and aircraft carriers) down the drain like toys in a bathtub, leveling entire cities with earthquakes or sweeping them away on tidal waves. Even the Himalayas are swamped with a massive tsunami.

Although the visual effects make up entire scenes, they are, for the most part, realistic. The story is not only engaging, but is delivered in a believable way, through use of television news coverage and scientifically accurate explanations for the disasters. The effect is like watching a documentary on Armageddon — weirdly fascinating to observe what might happen in the midst of our own destruction.

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