2012

Oh, no! Those loonies holding up signs and yelling "The end is nigh" may be right after all. In astrological circles the year 2012 will be the beginning of a new age, the age of Aquarius and some new age thinkers believe the cycle will correspond to a global "consciousness shift". They may be right. It is about time that our elite western culture began to question this current capitalist madness. But if we are to give up our sense of scientific reason and align ourselves with legends and folklore we really will be ill suited for the difficult and complicated world that lies ahead. I have far more faith in modern scholarly science which universally rejects the notion of an end-times anytime soon than any of  the astrological planet alignment prophesies. You need to read a lot into the end of the Mayan calendar stuff that just isn't there. These doomsday scenarios, along with similar UFO and other unscientific conspiracy theories, have been promulgated by popular television documentaries in recent years. No doubt money makers they appeal to the same kind of sensationalist and gullible mindset that read the tabloids. Still, it is quite logical that some catastrophe, such as impact, will happen someday. For that reason I agree with professor Stephen Hawking that we need to prepare for that inevitability by developing a viable space program.

And so on with this "2012" movie which I enjoyed in spite of its long running time and its corny sentimentalized dialogue and its utterly predictable story-line. Get serious, Hollywood. This is the end of the world we're dealing with here. And this has to be the mother of all disaster movies. There is nothing left on the world to blow up. Visually this movie raises the bar yet again as the special effects are very impressive indeed. But the movie tries too hard to please everyone so it loses the core of those, like me, who want to see something scientifically and logically plausible. And for the most part the whole thing seems reasonable. But spare us the charming father figure, here played by John Cusack, who becomes somehow superhuman escaping the inferno that seemed always at his heals helped along by his incredibly cute kids. To build on the conspiracy theory theme of the movie the world's governments and its elite classes were planning to ride out the storm in massive arks secretly built in China. (Conceding that only China could successfully take on such a big project and complete it within only two years). Could this be, I mention cynically, another concession to increase world sales of the movie? I know "2012" has broken records in Russia. And world attendance is high. Finally, the promotion for the movie has been criticized rightly so for stirring up a lot of Y2K style paranoia.  

Roland Emmerich who also directed "Independence Day" and "The Day After Tomorrow", both of which I also liked, will not want to direct another disaster epic. What could he possibly do to top this one? 

Director Roland Emmerich   USA 2009  8/10