2012

Posted by james on Dec 2, 2009 12:00 AM

6

IMDB     Apple Trailers

After seeing the previews, I thought two things; "This is like the sequel to 'Day After Tomorrow'", and "Oh man, I have to see this in the theater." I was well prepared for the complete package of stereotypical characters, bad acting, horrible plot and dialog, and of course an onslaught of special effects like the world has never seen. I went to see this at the local theater, which is decent, but I really wished I'd gone to the digital theaters (oooo) in Warwick. Not just for the size of screen or the digital projector coolness... more for the 'rumble you out of your seat' sound. Local theater sound is ok, but not great. Add on top of all my misgivings was seeing John Cusack in the trailer. Don't get me wrong, I like him in some movies (Don't I? Wait, which ones... can't remember now). But in general he seemed like a bad match.

At the end of the movie, I realized that I'd sat through 2.5 hours of disaster movie, and it didn't stink. That's pretty good for this genre. You pretty much know why you go; to see crazy special effects that the world is ending, the same type of reason you'd watch fireworks (sparkly!) or see something like Transformers (transformy!). The plot was standard fare, not overly cheesy. The actors were surprisingly decent (John Cusack, Amanda Peet... who knew). Overall, it was pleasant enough to sit through once in the theater, and once again at home given a good sound system (with tons of bass).

So yes, a decent disaster movie. Not great, nothing really worth writing about in particular, but pretty solid considering.