2012

2012

2012

In the disaster movie to end all fiasco flicks, a doomsday cataclysm results in billions losing their lives as the earth's crust breaks apart, dismantling civilization and rearranging the continents. Director Roland Emmerich gives his special-effects wizards license to test the limits of the technically plausible and morally palatable, while asking moviegoers to take heart as the scenario affords a White House geologist (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and a divorced science-fiction writer (John Cusack) the chance to exhibit altruism, even as their exploits are interspersed with disturbing apocalyptic imagery, including the destruction of St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. Considerable crude and crass language, much profanity, a rough gesture and a few instances of sexual innuendo.  (Jenkins, David PP. 13)

The entire universe could be destroyed more than once in the time it takes master-of-disaster director Roland Emmerich to rearrange planet Earth and dismantle human civilization in "2012" (Columbia). To be fair, the two and a half hours pass quickly enough, and so the film's length turns out to be its least troubling aspect. What's genuinely disturbing about this disaster movie to end all disaster movies -- even taken as a popcorn flick engineered solely to entertain -- is the almost sadistic way Emmerich and his computer-generated special-effects wizards kill off billions of people. "2012" probably has the highest body count of any movie ever made and, although the carnage isn't graphic, there's too much dissonance between the spectacle's inherent disregard for human life and the attempt to send a positive message about humanity's altruistic instincts and better nature. The limits of the technically plausible and morally palatable are both tested. Emmerich has built his career on ravaging the globe in popular films like "Independence Day," "Godzilla" and "The Day After Tomorrow." Here, mankind is not at fault; instead, doomsday stems from an act of nature -- increased solar activity and the alignment of the planets -- that results in the overheating of the earth's core and displacement of its crust. As the Mayans supposedly anticipated, these events reach critical mass on the winter solstice. The audience is asked to take heart since the end-of-days scenario brings out the best in two particular individuals. White House geologist Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) has been working with the scientific community and governments to predict the crisis and shape a response that includes an international plan to evacuate 400,000 fortunate souls. Exactly how they'll be spared has definite biblical overtones. Divorced science-fiction writer Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), who has pondered this eventuality in a largely ignored book, happens to be camping with his two children in Yosemite, an epicenter of the catastrophe. He and his family are perfectly positioned to witness California falling into the sea and Las Vegas being torn asunder. Back in the nation's capital, President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover) chooses to act selflessly before the White House is flattened by an aircraft carrier and the Washington Monument topples onto innocent citizens. (Jenkins, David Pp., 59)

The Himalayas then become the plot's focal point as ...