Movie Review: 2012

[No spoilers] After watching 2012 in my local cinema I just have to say: Great Special Effects and CGI with a very poor and cheesy script. I am sorry for the actors, since it is a quite good cast, they couldn’t do too much with a mediocre role.

One thing is sure, you must see it in a big screen to see how each grain of sand was animated in every destruction.

Director: Roland Emmerich
Release Date: 13 November 2009 (USA)
Budget: $200 – $260 millions
Gross revenue: $666,458,486

Cast

John Cusack, Amanda Peet and Oliver Platt were also acting together in Martian Child.

• John Cusack as Jackson Curtis
• Amanda Peet as Kate Curtis
• Chiwetel Ejiofor as Adrian Helmsley
• Thandie Newton as Laura Wilson
• Oliver Platt as Carl Anheuser
• Thomas McCarthy as Gordon Silberman (as Tom McCarthy)
• Woody Harrelson as Charlie Frost
• Danny Glover as President Thomas Wilson
• Liam James as Noah Curtis
• Morgan Lily as Lilly Curtis
• Zlatko Buric as Yuri Karpov
• Beatrice Rosen as Tamara
• Alexandre Haussmann as TamaraAlec
• Philippe Haussmann as TamaraOleg
• Johann Urb as TamaraSasha

[ WARNING: Here Be Spoilers]

I would like to see more realistic roles (like in Disctrict 9), one more time the hero always survives in the last millisecond and gets the girl, one more time USA is the head to save the Earth.

Roland Emmerich is an expert to ruin the best moments of a movie just to gain a cheap smile from the audience. The middle finger making the fuck you sign is showed in 2012 (just seconds before two giant doors got closed) and in The Independence Day, before Will Smith destroys the alien mother-ship.

2012 is like The Day after Tomorrow with steroids.

Is it true that the Mayas predicted that the world ends in 2012?

The Mayan culture emerged about 1,500 years before Christ and reached their zenith before the 8th century of the Christian era. Among them were astronomers, mathematicians, priests, soldiers, and wise men who devised complex but precise calendars based on the count of “Katun” – periods of twenty years. These formed the solar or civil calendar of 365 days, and the Tzolkin – the lunar or ritual calendar of 260 days. Both were inter-related because each could be divided by 5.

Both calendars are noted by their two interlocking wheels, that turned and turned for eternity and every time one cycle ended another began, obviously. The same occurs with the Gregorian calendar that we have had for a little more than two millenniums. While there are different interpretations of the equivalents of the Mayan dates in our calendar, this was used by the director of the film so as to invent that in 2012 would be the end of an era, and his fantasy was adorned with the suicide of a Mayan community (of mixed race) who became hopeless because the time had come for the accomplishment of the Mayan prophecies.

As for novels and movies, writers can do whatever they want: including aliens from other worlds, spirits, witches, or whatever. The result can be amusing or deplorable and offensive for some, as in the case of the books by Dan Brown. What is troublesome is that that people believe them and alter these fantasies into supposedly occult dogma.

From speroforum.

Religion in the Movie 2012

It is interesting how religion is portrayed in the movie 2012. At the beginning there are the hobos and nuts carrying signs of doom in the name of God. The Pope and the entire Vatican is destroyed before our very eyes while 1,000s in the square pray in vain. The Buddhist Temple is destroyed while the Llama rings the bonging bell. The statue of Jesus (Corcovado) crumbles when Rio de Janeiro is hit.

Originally the director also planned to show the destruction of Grand Mosque in Mecca but later was concerned about the potential consequences:

I wanted to do that, I have to admit. But my co-writer Harald [Kloser] said I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie. And he was right.
– Roland Emmerich

In the end this is the story of Noah and the Ark turn on its end. God doesn’t choose to save humanity or the animals, scientists and governments do it all this time with no help from a deity and with every religious institution destroyed in its wake. Humanity gets to start all over and I didn’t see one minister or Priest brought along to ruin the next Garden of Eden.

Rather than quotes from the Bible, the Noah of this movie, Adrian Helmsley, offers moral guidance in the form of quotes from an obscure writer (Jackson) instead.

From answersforthefaith.

Best quote of 2012

Adrian Helmsley: The moment we stop fighting for each other, that’s the moment we lose our humanity.

Best Performance

The Best Performance in 2012, hands down was of Woody Harrelson as the Blogger Charlie Pace, a mix of crazy and genius. Just watch in the video how he offers Cusack a pickle and then a beer.

Woody Harrelson did a wonderful work in Zombieland not just acting, but recording podcasts previous to the film premiere.

www.ThisIsTheEnd.com

In the 2012 movie, Woody blogs and records videos in Youtube since January 2009.

There are even fake signs about IHC (Institute of Human Continuity) and Frost interacting with them. BTW, IHC also has a fake twitter account: @theIHC.

Nowadays, some movies take time to create a digital fake world previous to the film’s premiere. They like to gain followers in Facebook, twitter, YouTube and blogs. This is very positive from a marketing point of view and interesting how actors have to work in this circumstances.

Charlie Frost’s flash animation

The fictional character of Charlie Frost has a Youtube Channel in: CharlieFrost2012).

This is the full animation showed in the film.

Interesting Trivia from 2012 movie

From IMDB:

• The doomsday theory has sprung from a Western idea, not a Mayan. Mayans insist that the world will not end in 2012. The Mayans had a talent for astronomy, and enthusiasts have found a series of astronomical alignments they say coincide in 2012, including one that happens roughly only once every 25,800 years. Once every 25,800 years, the sun lines up with the center of our Milky Way galaxy on a winter solstice, the sun’s lowest point in the horizon. The next time that will happen is on December 21, 2012; which happens to be the same day the Mayan calender expires.
• In an interview, the director Roland Emmerich has stated that this will be his final disaster film: I said to myself that I’ll do one more disaster movie, but it has to end all disaster movies. So I packed everything in.
• At 158 minutes, 2012 is Roland Emmerich’s second-longest film, behind The Patriot (2000) starring Mel Gibson. Coincidentally, Gibson directed the Mayan-themed movie Apocalypto (2006) which was also cinematographed by Dean Semler, the cinematographer for this film.
• Some cinemas were smart enough to show the film at 20:12 (12 minutes past 8), in keeping with the title of the film.
• The character Jackson Curtis is the real name of 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson) backwards. Director Roland Emmerich is a big fan of rapper 50 Cent and wanted to name his lead character after him.
• 2012 is the eighth film released in select D-BOX enabled cinemas, located in the US and Canada. In D-BOX’s words, the motion control technology: adds to the movie’s plot and underlying themes of fear, terror and explosive action by offering realistic sensations during most of the film’s action scenes.
• Jackson’s son is named Noah. This is an obvious reference to the biblical story of Noah’s ark and foreshadows the use of those huge ships/Arks to save humanity from the impending disaster.