2012

Movie: 2012

Location: AMC Hoffman Center 22

Cohorts: Me, Myself and I

Summary: Written and directed by Roland Emmerich, 2012 follows two main characters: Dr. Adrian Helmsley, a geologist, and Jackson Curtis, a science fiction writer. The film begins with Dr. Helmsley as he is visiting geologist friends in India. There he learns of a new and deadly “mutant” neutrino particle that is rapidly heating the earth’s core.  Shocked by the information, Dr. Helmsley drafts a report and travels back to America in order to inform the government.

After contacting the White House Chief of Staff, Carl Anheuser, Dr. Helmsley is given an immediate audience with the President. There, the President is informed that the earth as they now know it is coming to an end. There will be a tremendous eruption at the heart of Yellowstone, which will set in motion cataclysmic events. Dr. Helmsley travels to Yellowstone in order to investigate the disturbance; there he meets Curtis who is spending quality time with his children at a now nonexistent lake. After the investigation, it is proven that the earth’s crust is beginning to destabilize. Curtis is informed of this by fringe broadcast journalist Charlie Frost, who has been predicting the end of the earth for some time. Charlie also tells Curtis that the world’s governments have constructed several “arks” that they will use to save the best of humanity.  After claiming to own a map that reveals the arks’ location Charlie climbs to the top of one of Yellowstone’s’ many mountains and awaits the inevitable. Curtis then finds the map, and uses this knowledge to save his family as Yellowstone explodes and the entire world begins to crumble into rubble.

Throughout the rest of the movie Curtis and his family encounter people from many different nations as they travel toward the arks, while Helmsley and the rest of the world’s governments must solve difficult moral dilemmas. When each side’s stance has its own merits, which one should you choose?

Opinion: A very entertaining movie, 2012 took special effects extravagance to new highs, with scenes of entire cityscapes erupting into the sky. The futuristic arks are creative and with their design it seems feasible they could survive such cataclysmic flooding.

I enjoyed this movie, but I would just like to point out that it contains a-lot of ethnic stereotypes. Almost every character Jackson Curtis meets after the halfway point is a freakishly one-dimensional stereotype. Now, rich Russians with heavy accents are funny,

Photo from New York Daily News

but when they are trying to save all 30 of their Bentleys when the end of the world is at hand, the greed is a little excessive.

I give it a 2.5 out of 5.