2012 is one of those strange movies where you feel like you shouldn’t like it but cant help yourself enjoying and even sometimes laughing at the world’s destruction, either because of it’s slightly cheesy and humorous script or because the effects are so darn good that it just looks fantastic.
If you’ve not been following the story on HeyUGuys previously, 2012 is a story, in a nutshell, about the end of the world. I’m going to try and write this review with zero spoilers but I’ll warn you before I say anything close to one.
In the movie, there are two sets of main characters, the first is led by Oliver Platt and Chiwetel Ejiofor as the government scientists who spot that disaster is going to occur in 2009. The other group are a family led by John Cusack who is struggling to come to terms with the divorce from his wife, Kate (played by Amanda Peet) mainly because it puts a strain on the relationship with his kids (played by Liam James and Morgan Lily). Kate has a new partner who, in Cusack’s eyes, seems to be driving a wedge further between himself and his kids. That said, together, their mission throughout the movie is basically to stay alive. We have previously posted a 5 minute teaser clip which you can watch here showing part of this fight for survival but I can tell you now that what you see in this clip has been heavily edited and there is much more to come!
Danny Glover and Thandie Newton complete the main lineup as the President and First Daughter with Glover’s character trying to make the best decisions he can in the three years in which he has to ‘save humanity’.
2012 is directed by Roland Emmerich who has previously brought us Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow so it’ll be no surprise when I tell you that this movie is CGI heavy…. and when I say heavy, I mean heavy. No, there is nothing wrong with the earth’s gravitational pull, but when you have a budget of (estimated) $200m what are you gonna do with it? That’s right people, spend it!! Emmerich enlisted the help of the people at Digital Domain and Scanline VFX to create all the effects and my word did they do a good job! Filming something like that must be a challenge it itself but the attention to detail that these guys went to was exceptional. It’s hard to grasp what I mean until you see it but imagine The Day After Tomorrow on enhancing drugs and you might get close! When you see the world exploding with literally thousands of effects happening at once, this detail really shines through. Where you might find Micheal Bay doing a scene in transformers, he too will get ILM or Digital Domain (the later, he owns) to work out every tiny detail but Emmerich does this on a giant scale. He was after all basically destroying planet earth and a lot has to be thought about when you’re doing that!!
Woody Harrelson makes a cameo appearance as ‘the nutter’ predicting the end of the world but as we all do when we see the nutter on the bus, we’ll politely ignore them (in England anyway). Cusack and Harrelson only have 2 or 3 scenes together but bounce off one another really well and all their work together is hilarious. In fact that’s one thing that Emmerich’s screenwriter (Harald Kloser) seems to do well also, make light of the situation to make even the end of the world humorous in parts. I mean, take a look at the 5 minute clip we’ve got and you have Cusack ringing his ex-wife telling her not to listen to the Governator as he’s talking rubbish.
I could write about this movie for hours as there was so much in it. It’s quite a heavyweight coming in at 2hrs 40 mins but I was loving it and truth be told, I didnt want it to end. Cusack, Ejiofor and Platt all lead well from the front and their supporting cast are pretty good too. Often the side-kick kids get on my nerves in movies like this but they were in it enough so that you remember them but you can easily ignore them should you choose!
If you’re looking for an all out roller coaster ride from start to finish then this is it. Action, effect, effects, effects and then some more action with some laughs thrown in there too makes 2012 and I’ll definitely be getting it on blu ray when it comes out next year!
2012 is released 13th November and you can enter our 2012 poster competition here.
