MyRating: YY1/2Director: Roland Emmerich
Cast: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Oliver Platt, Danny Glover, Woody HarrelsonMPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense disaster sequences and some language
US Gross: US$ 166.1 Million
Worldwide Gross: US$ 769.7 Million
Roland Emmerich has made himself known as the father of today disaster movies. This man has destroyed our world again and again! Remember the alien invasion in Independence Day and the wrath of global warming in The Day After Tomorrow ? How about destroying New York city with his Godzilla? Like it or not, his disaster films always give us guilty-pleasure, to watch the world we know crushed and condemned, that is how he plays god and makes us want to see more how he can further smash our world.
And now he did it again! This time Emmerich really didn't want to lose the momentum of the most hot topic of the Mayan 2012 Prophecy, that our world will finally come to an end in 2012. This has created a perfect hype before the movie was released.
Spectacular! That was my first impression when witnessing how the mega disaster strikes the city of Los Angeles, the land is crazilly collapsing everywhere and the buildings are shattered into pieces. A visual that I have never seen before. Emmerich has proved to us again that he can deliver a top-notch and first class special effects.
But, that's it! The mega disaster, which is also the biggest disaster in the whole movie, just came out too early, and this makes the other following disasters becoming anticlimax. The way the main characters save themselves from many disasters in last seconds is also over dramatized. If you can survive driving your car just before the land falls behind you, consider you are lucky! It gives you a wow factor. However, if you show this over and over again, with planes doing exactly the same things, a minivan zigzag to avoid thousands of explosions that hit the grounds, and a man climbs up from a collapsing earth before he can even get out of the car, that is just not make sense and too over the top. Somehow it becomes a bit repetitive and tiresome.
The actors also show unrealistic emotions. The way they talk to each other are just not possible for persons who have just lost their neighbors, teachers or even bosses, maybe parents. And in the final scene, when the heroic Cusack tries to save the whole ship, it just not seems to be believable enough (but I love you, John Cusack). It is obvious that Emmerich wanted to make everything looks big and bold and... big, regardless the logic.
So, what more can I say about this big dumb popcorn movie. After disappointed by his earlier flick, a boring and shallow 10,000 BC, this movie begins to give me doubt that Mr. Emmerich is indeed capable of making a good film with a good storytelling and characterization, as good as what he has shown us with his CGI. I am really looking forward to see something like The Patriot, my favorite movie of him so far.
I still recommend this movie due to its wild catastrophic imagination and stand-out visual effects (I enjoyed it though), so that you will not be caught in surprise when the world does really end. Hmm, but maybe not in 2012. (MJ)
So, what more can I say about this big dumb popcorn movie. After disappointed by his earlier flick, a boring and shallow 10,000 BC, this movie begins to give me doubt that Mr. Emmerich is indeed capable of making a good film with a good storytelling and characterization, as good as what he has shown us with his CGI. I am really looking forward to see something like The Patriot, my favorite movie of him so far.
I still recommend this movie due to its wild catastrophic imagination and stand-out visual effects (I enjoyed it though), so that you will not be caught in surprise when the world does really end. Hmm, but maybe not in 2012. (MJ)
