Count

11/30/2009

2012

Well, 2012 and Fantastic Mr. Fox (review here) is not a 2-fer. It's just 4 "free" AMC tickets (2 from the This is It debacle).

Anyway, onto the movie 2012 (IMDB)... here's what we want from a disaster flick, a.k.a. Deep Impact 2 (Sorry, there was no disaster in the more entertaining Armageddon besides Ben Affleck's unfortunate acting):
  • Impossible disaster: check
  • Impossible solution: check
  • Urgency: check
  • Close to zero chance of success: check
  • Earthquakes that wipe out continents: check
  • Tsunamis about the height of the ocean: check
  • Rich assholes: check
  • Scheming politicians: check
  • Humorous crazy white dude: check
  • White kids in distraught: check
  • White parents in distraught: check
  • White folks running: check
  • White folks keep making impossible escapes: check
  • Pet needs to be saved: check
  • People dying: check
  • Minorities getting screwed: check
  • White and black hero: check
  • Black president: check
  • Tenuous relationships that need to be resolved through disaster because they just can't do that when times are normal: check
Actually... it has awesome special effects and that's all you need to know. It was entertaining and I love the Tibet solution. Some plot holes:
  • So UK cancels the London Olympics due to incoming disaster... and it's snowing in DC... right
  • US chief scientists asks "what's at 29,000 feet"? You don't know Mount Everest!? Besides, wouldn't Noah's Arc measure in metrics (meters) instead of feet?
  • Speaking of units, India use Celsius, not Fahrenheit
  • Danny Glover as a black president. Morgan Freeman should always be the black president (oh, and he will be in Invictus, movie I really look forward to)
It's dumb but entertaining. And 30 minutes too long. Sure, I'll recommend it.

3 comments:

siu said...

it does snow in DC!!! =D

siu said...

btw when i watched in theatre there were people leaving in the middle of the movie cos the disasters were too disturbing....

frenchlime said...

I love your comment about relationship that can only be ironed out through disasters. We have way too many movies to show that kind of impossibilities.

But likewise, I actually enjoyed the movie and didn't realize it was super long until getting out of the theater at 1am.