So I was somewhat dragged to the 2012 movie for a midnight showing. I had no plans on seeing this movie and thought it would have been stupid. The only movie I liked by Ronald Emmerich was Stargate and that is only in way that I think it is a relatively stupid movie that is funny because it takes itself far to seriously (The television franchise, until very recently, was keenly aware that a great deal of that type of mythology was silly and kinda ran with the self deprecation humour. Yes I liked the first two series and I am still on the fence about the new one).
So anyway, out I went. I got the huge popcorn, which no longer comes in a tub, a comically large candy thing, and a bucket of diet coke(I am watching my figure) and readied myself for a storm out as soon as my supplies ran out. I was surprised that although my supplies did run out, and yes before you ask I did end up with a rather sore stomach in the morning, I did not leave the theatre in an outright refusal to waste anymore of my time. I am not declaring this is a good movie but it is a very good turn your brain of and watch things go boom movie and since every reviewer on the seemingly doomed earth, if I am to believe Emmerich filmography, has decided to defend their belief that its pretty good I to am going to defend my recommendation that its not a complete waste of time.
My first problem with the film was that stupid long count myth which apparently some people believe. My assumption has always been that the world will be destroyed just like it was in the 4th millennia B.C.. You know, when the long count started. Then again it is an Emmerich and I should just be glad that aliens did not either found civilization or want to destroy. So the convenient mythology around this date is half decent for his purposes but I did not think I would forgive this annoyance. Little did I know that research the lowest priority for the writers on this film.
It is easier for me to explain how I came to enjoy the movie and disregard my more geek socializing nitpicking activities by telling you how the movie opens and whom I was with. This will not spoil anything because it is actually is not important to the movie.
I was actually invited to the midnight showing by a friend on mine who has some training in Astrophysics. So much so that when the movie opened with some dramatic shots of the solar system he kept saying in that it was not to scale with that type of scoff that scientists get in their voice. My thoughts on that were simple. That cat and a lot of Astrophysicists I have met like Star Trek and they pull the same visual effect. Why do they do it? Simple space is dull and boring. By reducing the scale you can paint a prettier picture and correct me if I am wrong but one of the Star Trek series opening credits had a spaceship’s reflection on the rings of a planet. So if you complain about that you are just looking for something to complain about. So that opening section of the film does not throw science out the window.
Science is thrown out the window a few more minutes in. Basically it sums down to “Neutrinos have mutated”. Yeah — particles do not mutated all that often. The two people talking are ‘scientists’ so basically this is the point I decided that science was not involved but just provided a silly excuse to destroy the world in the spectacular fashion. In fact I would like to thank Emmerich for that simply because this scene allowed me to enjoy the film.
The movie then proceeds to populate with a few one dimensional characters, which are well played within the limits of such a film, that can be found throughout Emmerich films. The movie, however, is not boring it is just going through the motions but the motions are large a grandiose each method of killing an unimaginable number of people in large and fun to look at(In fact through out most of the movie I could almost hear Emmerich yelling “BIGGER”(sic) at the C.G.I. animators). In music terms its a really good cover of a silly song. You can enjoy it without it being good.
A couple of good laughs (the two best being Oliver Platt in general and something with a timer that actually got a giggle out of me), decent to good performances, and spectacular specials effects. Really that is all this movie is. I am not a huge fan of disaster movies(I think the only one I really liked is On the Beach and I am not sure if that is really a disaster movie).If you want to nitpick the science, the drama, or the film technics you are really watching the wrong film. If you want to learn something then the only thing you can really learn is the in the event of oncoming apocalypse you then speed and location of the disaster is dependent on the location of Joan Cusak with a plus and minus of 3 metres. Otherwise check your brain at the door and have some fun.
No Comments