Film review: 2012

by Dan Scagnelli

2012 is the latest cataclysmic disaster movie from Roland Emmerich, whose first attempt was box office hit, Independence Day, saw aliens attack the world and Will Smith and the US government fight back.

Then came The Day After Tomorrow, and climate change wreaked havoc on the world heralding a new ice age.

Now 2012 throws in the Mayan Calendar as a holy scripture that predicts the end of the world through natural disasters in 2012. Interestingly this is a conspiracy that is circulating in our world today.

Don’t worry though, the film says the world's governments have known since 2009 and have been working on a project to save ‘some’ of us.

The movie opens with the alignment of the planets which the Mayan’s predicted as the beginning of devastation.

The wafer-thin story line starts with the audience being told that solar particles have suddenly mutated for an unknown reason. This ‘mutation’ will heat up the world’s crust causing an ‘Armageddon’ type scenario for civilisation.

Even though it’s a work of fiction, we still see writer Roland Emmerich trying to represent the real world by having a black president to the United States, an Eastern European governor of California and protests at G8 summits.

If you’re a big boy don’t worry. Woody Harrelson’s character, the crazy radio conspiracy theorist tells us that ‘Bill Gates’, ‘Rupert Murdoch’ and Russian billionaires will be among the saved.

John Cusack is the ordinary man who stumbles across this secret that government is keeping under wraps. The CGI effects for destruction are fantastic, such as the car chase in the middle of an earthquake.

However the plot and the messages behind the movie is something that is not desirable, and at a 12A certificate, telling kids they will die and that only the rich and genetically chosen people will live is not a positive message Hollywood should be exporting.