2012 is the disaster movie that had so much potential. It had the budget to hire the best actors such as John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Thandie Newton, Oliver Platt, Woody Harrelson, and Danny Glover. Plus it had the best special effects team Sony can afford. So what went wrong?
To start with, 2012 went for the awe factor instead of developing the different characters in the movie. Because it is a disaster movie, I expected it not to have a decent plot or award winning acting. But the dialogues were too cheesy and most of the actors, except Woody Harrelson, gave unconvincing performances.
The movie failed to make the audience sympathize with the people on the screen. There’s nothing real about the characters in 2012. They remain shallow all throughout the movie and are not interesting. The saving grace had to be Woody Harrelson’s character but he had to share screen time with a dozen other characters.
Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson): This marks the last day of the United States of America. And, by tomorrow, all of mankind. And we will be visible from the Milky Way as a tiny little puff of smoke. I’m watching the earth crumble before my eyes. The giant ash cloud created by this super-volcano will first envelop Vegas and then St. Louis and then Chicago and then, at long last, Washington, D.C. will have its lights go out!
It is given that 2012 has a lot of CGI special effects. How the hell can you destroy earth without using CGI anyway? The movie provided a lot of exciting moments but it became tiring to watch. The scenarios were too out of this world that it somewhat abused our intelligence that the main characters can survive a near miss experience one after another. I had to take a reality check to see if I was watching another Final Destination movie.
You wouldn’t feel good after watching 2012. It’s a downer of a movie and even if you got 2 ½ hours to spare, don’t watch this movie. You have been warned.
