2012 Review

2012

Release Date: 12th November 2009 - Australia

Production Companies

Columbia Pictures (presents)

Centropolis Entertainment

The Mark Gordon Company (Uncredited)

Distribution

Sony Pictures Australia

Genre: Action

Rating: M

Runtime: 158 minutes

Budget: $200,000,000

Box Office Gross: $791,217,826 (Worldwide)

Plot Summary

The world is ending

because the Earth's core is

heating up, which causes

the crust to become

unstable, as discovered

by Dr. Adrian Helmsley,

who is part of a worldwide

geophysical team. Warning

U.S. President Thomas

Wilson that the Earth's

crustal structure was

destabilising and that

failure to prepare to save

a fraction of the world's

population would lead to

the destruction of the whole

species. Meanwhile, the

same information has been

stumbled upon by writer

Jackson Curtis. As the

world's leaders rush to

build "arks" to escape the

oncoming disaster, Curtis

struggles to find a way

to save his family. In

the meantime, volcanic

eruptions and earthquakes

of unprecedented strength

are wreaking havoc worldwide.

Cast

John Cusack - Jackson Curtis

Chiwetel Ejiofor - Adrian Helmsley

Amanda Peet - Kate Curtis

Thandie Newton - Laura Wilson

Oliver Platt - Carl Anheuser

Tom McCarthy - Gordon

Silberman

Danny Glover - President

Thomas Wilson

Woody Harrelson - Charlie Frost

Liam James - Noah Curtis

Ziatko Buric - Yuri Karpov

Alexandre Haussmann - Alec

Philippe Haussmann - Oleg

Johann Urb - Sasha

John Billingsley - Professor West

Chin Han - Tenzin

Osric Chau - Nima

Tseng Chang - Grandfather Sonam

Lisa Lu - Grandmother Sonam 

Blu Mankuma - Harry Helmsley

George Segal - Tony Delgatto 

Stephen McHattie - Captain Michaels

Patrick Bauchau - Roland Picard

Jimi Mistry - Dr. Satnam Tsurutani

Ryan McDonald - Scotty

Merrilyn Gann - German Chancellor

Henry O - Lama Rinpoche

Zinaid Memisevic - President 

Sergey Makarenko

Paul Tryl - Zultan

Crew

Writer/Executive Producer/

Director - Roland Emmerich

Writer/Producer/Music - Harald Kloser

Associate Producer - Kristin Winkler

Executive Producers - Ute Emmerich and Michael Wimer 

Producers - Mark Gordon and Larry Franco

Co-Producers/Visual Effects Supervisors -

Volker Engel and Marc Weigert

Co-Producer/Second Unit Director - Aaron Boyd

Casting Director - April Webster

Military Advisor - Ron Blecker

Production Designer - Barry Chusid

Concept Artists - Tex Kadonaga and

James Clyne

Supervising Art Director - Don MacAulay

Construction Coordinator - Doug Hardwick

Set Decorator - Elizabeth Wilcox

Costume Designer - Shay Cunliffe

Director of Photography - Dean Semler

Aerial Directors of Photography: Second Unit -

Anne Foerster and Hans Bjerno

Underwater Director of Photography - Pete Romano

Unit Production Manager - Michael J. Malone

Location Managers - Hans Dayal, Ann Goobie

and Frederick G. Schroeder (Uncredited)

First Assistant Director - Tommy Gormley

First Assistant Directors: Second Unit -

James Bitonti and Andrew M. Robinson

Second Assistant Director: Second Unit -

Misha Bukowski

Second Second Assistant Director - Gary Hawes

Stunt Coordinator - John Stoneham Jr.

Aerial Coordinator: Second Unit - Frédéric North
Special Effects Supervisor - Mike Vézina

Special Effects Coordinator - Cameron Waldbauer

Animatronic Effects: Legacy Effects - J. Alan Scott,

Rob Ramsdell and Brian Namanny

Visual Effects Supervisor: SPI - Peter Nofz

Senior Visual Effects Supervisor: Scanline VFX -

Stephan Trojansky

Visual Effects Supervisor: Scanline VFX - John H. Han

Visual Effects Supervisor: Double Negative - Alex Wuttke

Visual Effects Supervisor: Digital Domain - Mohen Leo

Additional Visual Effects Supervisor:

Scanline VFX -  Bryan Grill

Visual Effects Designers: Hydraulx - Colin & Greg Strause

Visual Effects Producer - Josh R. Jaggars

Digital Effects Supervisors: Digital Domain -

David Hodgins and Darren Poe

Animation Supervisor: Hydraulx - Joshua Cordes

CG Supervisor: Uncharted Territory - Michael Grobe

Computer Graphics Supervisors: Digital Domain -

Haarm-Pieter Duiker and David J. Stephens 

Computer Graphics Supervisors: SPI - Daniel Eaton

and John Haley

Compositing Supervisor: Double Negative -

Matthew Twyford

Editors - David Brenner and 

Peter S. Elliott

Supervising Sound Editor/Sound Designer -

Paul N.J. Ottosson

Supervising Sound Mixers - Jeffrey J. Haboush,

Michael Keller and Rick Kline

Production Sound Mixer - Michael McGee

Foley Artists - Gary A. Hecker and

Michael Broomberg

Music - Thomas Wander

Score Mixer - Shawn Murphy

Review

In a lead-up to the New Year's Eve celebrations, I revisited the apocalyptic disaster flick 2012. The film premiered in 2009, and the prediction of the supposed doomsday outcome for 2012, which is integral to the storyline, fortunately, didn't happen in real life because it is false. Since then, all the fears and scepticism from everyone and myself about the movie have faded because there was no such world cataclysm in this timeline. It's come to my attention that 2012 was a big-budget, flawed disaster movie on a large scale and featured a long-running time that minimises the impact of the destruction scenes. Director Roland Emmerich seems more interested in the dark tone and visual effects than using his efforts to try and fix the incoherent storyline.

John Cusack, Amanda Peet and Danny Glover's characterisation of their roles seemed too thin for an ambitious movie with such a mediocre script. While Danny is a suitable actor to portray a Barack Obama-like authority figure, his role wasn't the biggest in his career. The best actor that can pull through this picture is Woody Harrelson. He overacts as an ill-fated conspiracy theorist who informs Cusack that the world is ending.

However, this isn't exactly a deep, profound and emotional feature. This movie is not worth a second viewing and is very likely an insult to the intelligence of moviegoers. It's likely better than Revenge of the Fallen from Michael Bay, which came out in the same year.

Star rating: (5/10) Average

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