Jason King2012 ($5-)
November 11th 2009 19:14
:
BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS ON FILM
Category: No Category
2012 ($5-)
REPOSTED TODAY AS RELEASING THIS MORNING
I had the fortune of being invited to a screening of Roland Emmerich's latest disaster movie, 2012, and am very thankful to my friends at Sony Pictures and sad to have to write this about the film but this is not only the biggest disaster film I have seen for years (probably since his last disaster film, The Day After Tomorrow) but it is also the biggest disaster I have seen in a long long time.
Do not get me wrong, this film has some of the most succesful and huge CGI and special effects that have ever been made for the big screen but the rest of it is WOEFUL. Twenty minutes in my "rent-a-date" and great friend Mikael leans to me and says "this is shit, I am going for a food run". He returned ten minutes later "what did I miss?" he asked and I could only reply with "nothing".
The first forty minutes of this film could have been cut out completely. It endeavours to introduce us to way too many characters, some of them great, Woody Harrelson (my fave from the film) as a mad lunatic conspiracy theorist who plays the character after smoking a few joints, to the bad, Oliver Platt, playing a bad guy in the US government. He was the worst casting I have seen in a long time. He is a funny guy, not an asshole.
In fact I have no idea why this film even had characters in it as the plot is pretty much non existent and more a bridging between the disaster montage this film is. Seeing Los Angeles slip into the ocean and waves that can reach the top of Everest is brilliant and I would have had more enjoyment watching this presented as a faux docco of how our world ended. After the first 40min of boredom, out of nowhere the end of the world commences and the film slips into high gear with a race for survival doing everything to stay in front of doom and destruction. It has elements of every other destruction film from Deep Impact to The Poseidon Adventure to The Day After Tomorrow. They have an ocean liner in it solely for showing the ship roll like in Poseidon.
The film tries to draw in the viewer with emotional connections with all these characters spread throughout the globe but honestly it is a laugh a minute at the emotional connectivity, or complete lack there of. There is the scientest saying goodbye to his father on the ocean liner and his friend in India prior to being consumed by a tsunami, the audience had snickers at how the emotion was delivered. Then there is the main family the film tries to centre around. John Cusack, why on earth he agreed to be in this film I will never know, is the father of a seperated family. Massive cliche. His son doesn't like him and much prefers the stepdad who is way more "together". The mum loves the stepdad, Gordon, enough but still harbours feelings for the ex. The young daughter loves her daddy and will follow him into dangerous territory. SPOILER TO FOLLOW: What was the biggest laugh of the film is Gordon, who the young son really wants his dad to get along with as he likes them both. Gordon gets squished and dies after all this emotion from the young son going on about how Gordon is the best and yet within 5mins of his death Jackson (Cusack) and his ex Kate (Amanda Peet) are kissing and saying how much they love each other in front of the kids. Thanks for coming and being able to fly a plane but we don't need you anymore Gordon - SHOCKING.
It gets worse too, believe me, the end scenes on the ark are filmed with what looks like a handycam and seriously look like we have stepped onto the set of the Bold and The Beautiful, my mouth dropped open by this time shocked at how the entire budget went into Special FX and to hell with the rest. Then there is the shameless product placement and the need to make Pull Ups by Drynites a major plot line. Who gives a shit if Jackson's daughter wets the bed at night and to end a huge disaster film with the line "No more Pull Ups" seriously brought bile up in my throat.
I have already mentioned John Cusack, Amada Peet (I Love You), Woody Harrelson and Oliver Platt but I did enjoy Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton but Dannie Glover is shocking as the President, what Morgan Freeman not available??
I do apologise for ranting at how much I disliked this film but just you wait until you see it. The Day After Tomorrow, one of Emmerich's previous films is one of my favourite films, it is one of my "sick" films, a film I put on whenever I am sick and can watch it over and over. I was hoping for something similar from this one but not to be. Another thing I did find odd about the whole 2012 thing is that the end of the world is not explained properly, it just goes on about the Mayans predicted this and the planets alligned with the sun which only happens every 300000 or so years. But there is limited scientific explanation of a plausible kind to warrant the disasters. Also, the Mayan Calendar can easily be explained like a clock, once it comes to its end it just starts again - no need to end the world at all, but I guess we will find out on Dec 21 2012.
I do need to reiterate how splendid the visuals and fx are in this film, Emmerich is in a world of his own in regards to these kind of effects but in this film not even his CGI mastery can save it from the vomit worthy script and plot.
Worth $5- and out on November 12 - watch this purely for the big screen visuals.
REPOSTED TODAY AS RELEASING THIS MORNING
I had the fortune of being invited to a screening of Roland Emmerich's latest disaster movie, 2012, and am very thankful to my friends at Sony Pictures and sad to have to write this about the film but this is not only the biggest disaster film I have seen for years (probably since his last disaster film, The Day After Tomorrow) but it is also the biggest disaster I have seen in a long long time.
Do not get me wrong, this film has some of the most succesful and huge CGI and special effects that have ever been made for the big screen but the rest of it is WOEFUL. Twenty minutes in my "rent-a-date" and great friend Mikael leans to me and says "this is shit, I am going for a food run". He returned ten minutes later "what did I miss?" he asked and I could only reply with "nothing".
The first forty minutes of this film could have been cut out completely. It endeavours to introduce us to way too many characters, some of them great, Woody Harrelson (my fave from the film) as a mad lunatic conspiracy theorist who plays the character after smoking a few joints, to the bad, Oliver Platt, playing a bad guy in the US government. He was the worst casting I have seen in a long time. He is a funny guy, not an asshole.
In fact I have no idea why this film even had characters in it as the plot is pretty much non existent and more a bridging between the disaster montage this film is. Seeing Los Angeles slip into the ocean and waves that can reach the top of Everest is brilliant and I would have had more enjoyment watching this presented as a faux docco of how our world ended. After the first 40min of boredom, out of nowhere the end of the world commences and the film slips into high gear with a race for survival doing everything to stay in front of doom and destruction. It has elements of every other destruction film from Deep Impact to The Poseidon Adventure to The Day After Tomorrow. They have an ocean liner in it solely for showing the ship roll like in Poseidon.
The film tries to draw in the viewer with emotional connections with all these characters spread throughout the globe but honestly it is a laugh a minute at the emotional connectivity, or complete lack there of. There is the scientest saying goodbye to his father on the ocean liner and his friend in India prior to being consumed by a tsunami, the audience had snickers at how the emotion was delivered. Then there is the main family the film tries to centre around. John Cusack, why on earth he agreed to be in this film I will never know, is the father of a seperated family. Massive cliche. His son doesn't like him and much prefers the stepdad who is way more "together". The mum loves the stepdad, Gordon, enough but still harbours feelings for the ex. The young daughter loves her daddy and will follow him into dangerous territory. SPOILER TO FOLLOW: What was the biggest laugh of the film is Gordon, who the young son really wants his dad to get along with as he likes them both. Gordon gets squished and dies after all this emotion from the young son going on about how Gordon is the best and yet within 5mins of his death Jackson (Cusack) and his ex Kate (Amanda Peet) are kissing and saying how much they love each other in front of the kids. Thanks for coming and being able to fly a plane but we don't need you anymore Gordon - SHOCKING.
It gets worse too, believe me, the end scenes on the ark are filmed with what looks like a handycam and seriously look like we have stepped onto the set of the Bold and The Beautiful, my mouth dropped open by this time shocked at how the entire budget went into Special FX and to hell with the rest. Then there is the shameless product placement and the need to make Pull Ups by Drynites a major plot line. Who gives a shit if Jackson's daughter wets the bed at night and to end a huge disaster film with the line "No more Pull Ups" seriously brought bile up in my throat.
I have already mentioned John Cusack, Amada Peet (I Love You), Woody Harrelson and Oliver Platt but I did enjoy Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton but Dannie Glover is shocking as the President, what Morgan Freeman not available??
I do apologise for ranting at how much I disliked this film but just you wait until you see it. The Day After Tomorrow, one of Emmerich's previous films is one of my favourite films, it is one of my "sick" films, a film I put on whenever I am sick and can watch it over and over. I was hoping for something similar from this one but not to be. Another thing I did find odd about the whole 2012 thing is that the end of the world is not explained properly, it just goes on about the Mayans predicted this and the planets alligned with the sun which only happens every 300000 or so years. But there is limited scientific explanation of a plausible kind to warrant the disasters. Also, the Mayan Calendar can easily be explained like a clock, once it comes to its end it just starts again - no need to end the world at all, but I guess we will find out on Dec 21 2012.
I do need to reiterate how splendid the visuals and fx are in this film, Emmerich is in a world of his own in regards to these kind of effects but in this film not even his CGI mastery can save it from the vomit worthy script and plot.
Worth $5- and out on November 12 - watch this purely for the big screen visuals.
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Comment by rix
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
It is worth a big screen watch for the visuals but 2hrs and 40mins to deal with the worst script and plot of the year is too much to deal with.
Hope you are well
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
I do want to see this on the big screen though ... I'm a sucker for convincing mass destruction ... But I loathe Emmerich's movies. Independence Day is dire, The Day After Tomorrow is really not much better, Godzilla is dreadful ... all of them sport great special effects, but cardboard characters, tedious exposition, annoying moral and ethical pontificating ... I'll stop there.
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile