Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
2.5/4
Armageddon Without The Hook
MovieMike - wrote on 01/25/2017
‘2012’ is yet another entry into the ‘end of the world’ genre of films. This movie sticks closely to the now familiar pattern established by predecessors such as ‘Armageddon’, ‘Deep Impact’, and ‘The Day After Tomorrow’. Director, Roland Emmerich, also served as producer on the latter film and other special effects laden projects such as ‘Independence Day’ and ’10,000 B.C.’
The story centers on Jackson Curtis, played by John Cusack (‘Martian Child’, ‘Ice Harvest’, ‘Must Love Dogs’), who is a frustrated author, divorcee, and considered a bit of an under-achiever by those around him. Jackson inadvertently stumbles upon a possible government cover-up of a pending disaster and immediately tries to spirit his kids, ex-wife, and her current husband to …
Rating of
2/4
"2012" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 12/27/2011
Scientists discover that the planet's crust is destabilising creating a race against time to save as much of humanity as possible. 2012 has all the ingredients of an Emmerich film; the estranged couple with plucky kids in tow, the noble self-sacrificing president, the conspiracy theorist kook and of course the gleeful trashing of the world's greatest monuments (this time the White House gets squished by an aircraft carrier and the Vatican falls over on the Pope!) It follows the usual formula of spectacular set pieces punctuated with schmaltz and every race against time comes down the the final second and every escape is by a hair's breadth. It actually works quite well for the centre section when they're outrunning earthquakes and volcanos with some truly jaw dropping chases involving …
Rating of
2/4
2012 review
Daniel Corleone - wrote on 09/04/2011
Well research disaster film with some touching moments. Large cast consists of Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt), President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover), DJ Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson), author/writer Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) and more. The stunning effects are pretty to look at but unfortunately so many scenes were unbelievable to the point of ridiculousness. One of many would be the limo (out running collapsing buildings and a cracking fault line), plane (out maneuvering the obstacles and running with a limited ground for take-off), and cellphone signals during tsunamis, long underwater scenes, again out running the hot rocks from the volcano, etc. Screen play was decent; acting was solid, overall a typical popcorn …
Rating of
3/4
Sit Back and Enjoy the Ride
Arun - wrote on 02/13/2010
Once the action started(it starts pretty soon into the movie) the movie became absolutely engaging. It remained so throughout the first half but in the second half the intensity dropped a little(I also felt they should have reduced the run time by 15-20 mins).
The story is scientists discover that the Earth's crust has become unstable so the governments and rich people secretly build 'arks' so 'selected' people can escape the disaster. When the disaster strikes the hero and his family escape from fire spitting volcanoes, crumbling and caving in cities(these scenes are spectacularly done) by road and air. So much action just in the first half.
In the second half as the family make their way(with some assistance) to the 'arks' there are tsunamis which flood the White House and …
Rating of
1/4
2012: A disaster....err movie.
GJ81 - wrote on 11/22/2009
2012 works like this: It's a disaster movie, and also, the movie is a disaster. Its about spectacle, and the build up is slightly longer than it should be but it works in that entertaining sort of way, and then the event happens...and it's great, a good fun scene full of joyous special effects and loud bangs and clangs, children screaming and people running, but then the first money scene ends and the fun just...stops. What happens for the rest of the movie is the build up, then an action scene, a build up, another action scene, a build up etc etc. We get characters who we do not care about (through by the numbers dialogue) talking about lives we do not care about. And this goes on and on and on until my brain literally turned to mush and i spent the rest of the two and a half hour …
Rating of
3/4
A Really Good Disaster Flick
Roseybaby - wrote on 11/20/2009
I'm a sucker for a good disaster movie and this was a good disaster movie. The whole 2012...Mayan calender thing is just there to grab people's attention and give a reason for the global disaster. I liked this movie. I can't help it.......it was like a bunch of different disaster movies rolled into one. What more could you want? There were earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, huge fires, floods and some in the air excitement involving an airplane. I know people are saying that the story lines weren't very deep..and I suppose that's true enough, but it didn't matter to me...I was drawn in by the action and disasters. The special effects were fantastic. This movie completely kept my attention. Like I said...I love good disaster movies. I was seeing Airport, The Posiedon …
Rating of
2.5/4
Disaster Duties
MovieGuy878 - wrote on 11/19/2009
"2012" has been talked about for a while now since it's only 3 years away. So it is naturally fit to make a movie about the destruction of mankind in 2012. Well, there is no one probably more fitting to helm this film than disaster movie director, Roland Emmerich. While he has regain is footing and made a much better film than his last two efforts, he still can escape his own pitfalls that have hurt some of previous films. The thing Emmerich does so well is destroying the world, and boy does he do it here! "2012" contains some jaw-dropping, top notch diasaster scenes that are worth seeing just for them. What Emmerich doesn't so well is his attention to character developement and a story as powerful as the disasters. Emmerich tries here with the story and its characters but in end the …
Rating of
2.5/4
Another Beautiful Disaster
Chris Kavan - wrote on 11/15/2009
I'll say one thing for Roland Emmerich - no other man can make the complete annihilation of mankind so spectacular. Now, if only he could craft characters and story that were as jaw-dropping as the special effects and he would have movie gold. As it stands, it has to settle for tarnished bronze once again.
So if you've been paying attention to any trailers, you've pretty much already seen most of the outstanding disaster scenes. Still, watching it on the big screen is a sight to behold, whether it's California sliding into the sea, Las Vegas collapsing, Yellowstone erupting or Himalayas flooding - it's catastrophe on an epic, global scale - and really, that's the big selling point.
Yes, there is an story - mostly tailing John Cusack and family around as they improbably escape from …
