2012, an easy target for critics

I finally got around to watching 2012 the other day. I've heard mixed reviews for this movie, and I think a lot of folks gave it a pretty unfair rap. Critics these days like to analyze the finer aspects of film. Needless to say, this movie was a very easy target for them. What critics don't like to do is just sit back and enjoy a movie. The plot refers back to an ancient Mayan "prophecy" warning of the end of the world (or "Time", as the Mayans would have put it) in December of 2012. The film ATTEMPTS (Note this word, as this is the only thing a writer can do with this type of plot) to portray this idea from a scientific standpoint. Needless to say, the science was bullshit, but who was expecting the 2012 idea to make sense anyway? Some folks, it seems. 2012 was the standard Roland Emerich film, so if you've seen The Day After Tomorrow or Independence Day, then you definitely knew what to expect. These movies are always well-funded, end-of-the-world scenarios portraying one man's vision of humanity's reaction to its inevitable destruction. If you're like me, you went into this movie expecting to see AWESOME scenes of death and obliteration (California sinking into the Pacific, massive tsunamis, hilariously undersized Yellowstone eruption, buildings collapsing, main characters so-narrowly avoiding horrific death on far too many occasions and the like...), and you finished the movie satisfied as hell. I wasn't looking for plot structure and realism, though there was some semblance of character-driven drama which was just as touching/cheesy (depending on how you like your apocalypse movies) as in any other Emerich film. I wasn't expecting people to actually survive at the end, or the somewhat pro-Africa message that was too much like the ending to Day After Tomorrow, but it was a minor annoyance at best.

As an long-time Emerich fan, I liked it. And Independence Day is still one of my favorite movies ever. This movie didn't come close to that mark (nobody will ever beat the "welcome to Earth" scene), but the depictions of world-ending carnage were totally sweet, probably the best I've seen so far. I'll conclude that the movie was awesome, but if you're planning on watching it and want to take it too seriously, then don't.