I just came back from the movies, where I watched “2012“. Initially, when I heard about this film, it sounded awesome. I even posted the trailer in the blog, when I first saw it. But then, it came to the cinemas and pretty much everyone I know went to see it, and I haven’t heard any exciting reviews yet. Yes, the special effects are awesome. Yes, they destroy the US and even pretty much all current Earth population. Yes, it’s breath-taking at times. But there was no excitement in those comments. No thrill. No sparks. It almost felt like the movie was boring. So, I wasn’t hurrying to see it. But today I finally did. First, because I had to. Second, because all the other movies I’ve either seen or they suck.
So, I went to see “2012” with lower expectations than I initially set. And maybe that was exactly what I needed. Because I quite enjoyed the film. There were, of course, a few tongue-in-cheek moments, such as mobile telephony working when everything was falling under ground or a doctor with 2 hours of practice flying planes or a computer simulation being able to predict wave impacts up to the second during the time when nothing was certain. But that doesn’t matter. You get these in pretty much every movie these days.
What’s important is that the movie had something to show that you haven’t seen before. Yes, everyone saw the end of the world movies. But not at this scale. Ground was falling, building were collapsing, giant waves were playing ping pong with huge ships, trains were flying over airplanes, and on, and on, and on. Some of the scenes were so realistic, that I was grabbing my armchair’s handles. And that happens rarely.
If you are not into huge scale special effects films, then this one still has some drama, romance, and comedy to offer. Comedy especially. I think it actually made the film so much better. If everything that happened in the movie would have been given with the serious attitude, it would be way too boring and unrealistic. But an occasional joke here and funny face there brought this film to life. As did some of the acting.
Overall, I’d recommend this film to anyone who expects entertainment from a movie. 4 stars.
P.S.: If I still haven’t convinced you to see this film on a big screen, consider this: it was directed by Roland Emmerich, who also directed movies like “10,000 B.C.”, “The Day After Tomorrow”, “The Patriot”, “Godzilla”, “Independence Day”, “Universal Soldier” and a few others.