Wednesday, April 07, 2010

2012 (spoilers!)

Two nights ago, I watched the movie "2012". I was excited about seeing the special effects, and the epic storyline.



*** SPOILERS BELOW! ***

Instead it was the most disappointing movie I've ever seen.

Not because the effects were bad -- quite the contrary! The tidal waves, earthquakes, and fires all looked completely realistic. It was because the movie introduces you to personable characters that you slowly develop an affinity for, and after you genuinely like them, it kills them off one by one. Each is killed in a more gruesome way than the last.

I really liked the Russian pilot Sasha. He bravely lets everyone exit the plane before him, and is narrowly saved from falling ... before dying in a fire.

Then the Russian girl with the little dog. I like how she gets more confident as the movie goes on! She gets trapped in a watery compartment, but it looks as though she'll get rescued just in the nick of time... except she doesn't and drowns.

The sweet Indian scientist we met at the start of the film embraces his incredibly pretty wife and kisses his son... just before they are all killed in a tidal wave.

The stepfather starts off seeming like a jealous douche, but gradually we see that he's actually a good man struggling with being a stepparent to two young kids... But not any more, after he's crushed in giant gears.

What the hell!

You know how some people watch movies as escapism from their lives? After seeing this movie, you'll want to escape back to your life.

8 comments:

  1. Kimberly is eagerly awaiting this movie, as she loves disaster movies. I don't know if these disappointments will be disappointing to her.

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  2. Your review of 2010 was quite true and agreeable. Something I didn't see it coming in the movie was the big ships built China and that earth still existed after all those catastrophes. My initial thought of the movie plot before watching 2012 was that the earth would be destroyed, and aliens would rescue us and allow us to live among them. “What the hell!” I was way off!

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  3. I didn't mind everyone dying so much (actually i was hoping they'd all just die so the movie would finally end). I got gradually more and more pissed off that no matter what disaster they were put through they escaped by means so incredibly improbable as to be rendered completely unbelievable. One thing after another, I was just constantly yanked out of the movie by the stupendously improbable dodging of volcanic fireballs, bridges falling, driving through collapsing buildings, etc etc. I just wanted to yell "come on!" It doesn't make for better action, it is just off the charts impossible.

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  4. True. It seemed like the movie producer decided beforehand who would die and who would live. The ones destined to die would be offed no matter what, and the ones chosen to live would be able to survive insurmontable odds.

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  5. Maybe you can see why I'm jaded with effects films. For every Avatar there is a 2012 - whether you actually watch it or not. I know a lot of friends who slaved away to work on this film...not everyone has the luxury of choice. Imagine working for a year straight on something like this....the FX are really fantastic but the artists have no input into the story and in this case, it was awful. As a result, 2012 was not nominated for an Academy Award in VFX.

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  6. The end of world is almost here, not as depicted in 2012 though. Read: http://www.familyradio.com/graphical/literature/judgment/judgment.html.

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  7. http://www.familyradio.com/graphical/literature/
    judgment/judgment.html

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  8. I watched this film yesterday, and enjoyed it. It was completely preposterous, but I think it was intentionally 'tongue in cheek' and made me laugh.

    With regards to people dying, it would have been tricky to do a film about the world ending, without one or two casualties along the way.

    Certainly not a classic by any stretch of the imagination, but enjoyable nonetheless.

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