Here's why I would have preferred a zombie apocalypse rather than some mumbo-jumbo Mayan prediction: I pick simply retch from flesh-eating undead over some embarrassing allegedly scientifically-proven "Judgement Day;" folks, welcome to The End.
2012 was originally released in 2009, but since today was the assumed End, theaters had held screenings for the entire Doomsday week here in the Philippines. Seems fair and appropriate enough. But the impact Roland Emmerich's global annihilation movie has diminished three years after its first theatrical release. The fact that it borrows exceedingly from previous disaster features only exacerbates its status, making the ride even less bumpy than what we expected back in 2009.
Emmerich once settled for small destruction (The Independence Day) then slowly builds up for something bigger (Godzilla) and bigger (The Day After Tomorrow). This time, he gets to virtually wipe out the human civilization.
The global destruction this time is based on the Mayan Doomsday prediction to purportedly happen on December 21, 2012 - final day of the Mayan calendar. Emmerich pins John Cusack in the middle: divorced man who saves the day, wins the children and gets the wife back. Once we got to know him well enough, Emmerich quickly pushes the devastation button and from there, it's all cheese-ball scientifically-supported destruction. One catastrophic event before another one even occurs. Volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis and wildfires, I'm not sure if they're new.
It's always been a terrible movie - the beautiful kind. And I guess people understood that from the start. After all, this is the preferred type of entertainment - virtually destroying earth for all mindlessness that it has. Exhibit a.) Michael Bay films, you pick one (I pick Transformer movies, all of them which altogether gross over a billion U.S. dollars). Exhibit b.) the recent board game movie Battleship earned a crap-load of money as well.
It's a good thing if you come in to theaters expecting for devastation as you're going to get a lot of that. In that case, a 200-peso ticket ($5.00) is already a bargain. The movie is bereft of good characterization, but Cusack provides one in his character making the overlong ride less flat and a little more bumpy.
Three years ago, I paid for skydiving and all I got was a cute little bungee jump - okay enough, but nothing near of what I expected. This time, I knew better.
VERDICT: B
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