Runtime: 158 minutes
Color: Color
Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1
Language: English/Russian
Country: USA/Canada
Director: Roland Emmerich
Release Date: 11/11/09
Film star: John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton and Woody Harrelson

I have to admit that ever since I was little I have been slightly nervous, maybe even slightly terrified about the whole 2012 prophesy. You know the one I’m talking about-the end of the world, the sun crashing into earth, the world crumbling beneath us, Armageddon, and whatever else is supposed to happen. Therefore, when I heard that the film 2012 was coming out I was a little bit uneasy.

Who wants to watch a movie about the end of the world, especially when a lot of people think this is really going to happen in less than two years? But I decided that I might as well face my fears, so I headed to the theater to see 2012, and I can now safely say that I am no longer afraid. The outlandish situations in this movie, paired with the shallow dialogue and incredulous action scenes make 2012 seem so farfetched that it eased my fears.

If you haven’t seen 2012 or heard anything about it, the plot is really quite simple. An American geologist visits India where he learns that the core of the earth is rapidly increasing in temperature. He returns to the United States to inform the President, played by Danny Glover, that this will ultimately result in the end of the world as we know it. The solution is to choose 400,000 people who will be saved from the destruction in a series of arks.

We follow another character, Jackson Curtis, a Los Angeles writer played by John Cusack, as he and his children outrun earthquakes and tsunamis, escaping just in the knick of time as entire cities fall off the edge of the earth into the ocean. Who will survive? Who will die? Will the entire human race be wiped out? I guess you’ll just have to watch to find out!

The good thing about this movie is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and maybe that’s the reason why it was able to assuage my fears of our impending 2012 doom. You can sort of laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation as John Cusack drives a limo through LA as streets and skyscrapers crumble all around him and escapes, unscathed. Planes take off just in time for the runways to crumble into nothing behind them, well-known landmarks like the Sistine Chapel collapse and characters escape from the most inescapable situations imaginable. The visual effects in this movie are nothing short of amazing. However, despite the fact that they may look realistic, the sheer ridiculousness of what is going on around the characters makes you feel safe and unafraid of what may or may not lie in our own futures.

All that being said, I can see how a lot of people could have been disappointed by 2012. The dialog is incredibly cheesy, none of the characters showed much emotion and it was hard to get attached to any of the characters that were killed in the disaster (and a lot of them were killed). The constant close calls that all of the surviving characters had to go through made the movie extremely unrealistic. However, if you are looking for a completely outlandish action-disaster film then 2012 is a must see.