2012 by Roland Emmerich

[endgame]

I thought it was interesting to see a bunch of comets hitting the earth.

Yes, but it also gave me the creeps.

The first thing I thought was that this is how they are going to cover up the work done by people like Laura and the SOTT team (the coming comets part), by implementing it in a movie. It's like that movie National Treasure, the eye and the pyramid, freemasons etc. and people go "that stuff is not real, that was part of a movie plot, pure science fiction, that's all. You're crazy". My 2 cents.

 

[Argonaut]

This discussion makes me think about how TV shows and movies cause powerful feelings to manifest in the viewer. Our brains and bodies react emotionally to many on-screen events as if we were actually experiencing them - adrenaline is produced, muscles tense, etc. Could this be a partial purpose of the film industry? To generate quick-and-easy Lizzie food on a consistent basis? I watch movies and certain shows myself, and I love many of the ones mentioned in this thread. But it makes me wonder.

 

[Beau]

I noticed that the aircraft carrier in the trailer is the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, and it rolls over and destroys the White House. :P

I like the symbolism of that!

I recently read an interview with Roland Emmerich where he says that he intentionally named the aircraft JFK because he thought it was ironic. He also destroys the Christ the Redeemer statue because he's against organized religion.

 

[Mayb]

Such poor dialogs, bad back up story , not much explanation, just pure distruction, in some moments boring and some stupid due to missing logic in events.
All is there : fire, earthquakes , flood, explosions, bulidings falling, any type of catastrophe we imagine is there , and hero of course.
I was hoping that there will be some order , timeline, first fire , than this than that (I remember Cycle od Cosmic Catastrophes explain some "timeline" in destruction giving some scenario based on research), maybe I was expecting to see something similar and some pre-story ...forgetting that its Emmerich .

 

[RAJAWANG]

After forcing myself to finally see the movie, sitting on the first row in front at the last show of the day, I left the theatre, sleepy, with a stiff neck and disappointed at being deceived by the story writers of the movie. Many of the explanation is vague and not to spoil the movie for those members whom haven't seen the movie, just a hint: the way Woody Harrelson died in the movie would definitely need a different ending than suggested in the movie.

But the after effect in my community is somewhat interesting. Already in the newspaper, religious leaders condemn the movie, as smarter than God in predicting the end of the world, blasphemous, scaring people for the sake of commercialism, etc. Interesting indeed.

Would be nicer if the title is "2020: Eight years after" ;)

 

[Gimpy]

Such poor dialogs, bad back up story , not much explanation, just pure distruction, in some moments boring and some stupid due to missing logic in events.
All is there : fire, earthquakes , flood, explosions, bulidings falling, any type of catastrophe we imagine is there , and hero of course.
I was hoping that there will be some order , timeline, first fire , than this than that (I remember Cycle od Cosmic Catastrophes explain some "timeline" in destruction giving some scenario based on research), maybe I was expecting to see something similar and some pre-story ...forgetting that its Emmerich .

I read a review on cracked (dot) com about this movie, and while the review was very funny, it convinced me to skip this one in the theater. It might be fun to Netflix once it goes to DVD, but I'm not interested in the whole smoke and mirrors parts of it. Its up there with Paranormal Activity, a feeding movie. :(

 

[rylek]

Went to see it last night and even though wasn't expecting much of a script or any unveiling, as pointed out in the previous posts, it turned out to be just a flood of special effects with the whole world falling apart. For me the purpose of this movie and others similar ones (most recent The Fourth Kind http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=13867.0 ) is more along the lines of planting these scenarios into the subconsciousness of the masses.

I have to say while watching the huge tsunamis, exploding volcanoes etc it did send shivers down my spine, in light that some of this is in store for us in the near future.

Also there was the theme of "elites" trying to save themselves and the old civilization so that after they could again position themselves at the top of hierarchies to continue along the same path as before. As already mentioned, it's a movie to watch only once.

.... I thought it was interesting to see a bunch of comets hitting the earth. It reminds one of the stories of Atlantis...

No comets in this one :)

 

[theos]

I have to say while watching the huge tsunamis, exploding volcanoes etc it did send shivers down my spine, in light that some of this is in store for us in the near future.

I had a similar reaction when watching the world falling apart in this movie. My eyes were welling up with tears. I can't say it was a good movie though. Just your typical disaster movie complete with corny dialog, needless family conflict and overly drawn out tense moments where you're supposed to wonder if the hero will make it in the end.

 

[shijing]

This is Bill Ryan's review of 2012 from the Project Camelot site:

We (or at least I, Bill: I await Kerry's review with interest) do not recommend the latest Roland Emmerich disaster movie and unintended comedy, 2012. A better investment would have been G-Force - a kid's story about a covert program using guinea pigs for espionage. It would have been more realistic.

Emmerich spent $250 million and didn’t check how high the Drakensberg Mountains were, didn’t know what the North Face of Everest really looked like, and failed to locate a high school physics student to ask whether or not neutrinos “mutate”, whether cellphones would still work when solar storms destablize the Earth's core, and whether light planes can fly through clouds of volcanic ash. And that’s before we get started on the plot, the script, the acting, and the logic and/or impossibility of almost every scene. The best online review I read suggested that casting John Cusack in the lead role was like reciting Shakespearean sonnets at a pie-eating contest. Exactly.

But here's one reason to see it: to figure out why this has been released. Like his previous bad-news epics, Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, 2012 turns serious questions into poorly-made and badly-researched comedic entertainment - implanting into the minds of millions that such issues are trivial, ridiculous, impossible, and laughable - and that alternative radio show hosts like 2012's Charlie (played by Woody Harrelson) are unhinged, half-crazed caricatures with little grip on reality. A real-life Charlie would suspect that Emmerich had been told to make the movie the way he did...

Leaner, slicker, faster, and infinitely smarter is the Jason Bourne trilogy. I recently watched them one after the other, riveted from start to finish: these are by far the most realistic espionage movies ever made, featuring the fierce intelligence, humanity and angst of a highly trained, amnesiac Duncan O'Finioan-type super-soldier on a personal mission to discover who he really is - containing no special effects at all. Roland Emmerich: quit now, with the box office takings in your pocket.

--Bill

Truth does occasionally rear its head at Project Camelot ;)

 

[Mayb]

Yes , I forgot to mention had same feeling like others almost during whole movie , very unplasant feeling in stomach, fear and chills.

 

[Zadius Sky]

I had a similar reaction when watching the world falling apart in this movie. My eyes were welling up with tears. I can't say it was a good movie though. Just your typical disaster movie complete with corny dialog, needless family conflict and overly drawn out tense moments where you're supposed to wonder if the hero will make it in the end.

I've watched the movie this past Saturday, and strangely I found myself in tears from watching this film, all those people. Earth opening up, swallowing everything, plates moving, walls of water, drowning the rest.

My step-dad told me that it's interesting to see that the "shelters" (which were big ships) were being built in China, which he commented that all the workers in China taking American jobs.

And, what's up with that face of the Africa in the end?

.... I thought it was interesting to see a bunch of comets hitting the earth. It reminds one of the stories of Atlantis...

No comets in this one :)

When I watched the trailer, I too thought that there would be comets, but nooooo. It was all that debris from the bursting supervolcano at Yellowstone.

 

[Smallwood]

This movie certainly has produced a sort of a wave in people knowing about the 2012-concept. Hearing 16-year old aspiring car-mechanics talk about it was quite... well... incongruous with my worldview.

Doesn't sound a very uplifting a movie judging from your guys' posts, to say the least! I'll pass.

 

[Divide by Zero]

This movie was a dud in my opinion.


SPOILER ALERT



What ever happened to all the volcanic ash, somehow after a short time they can live fine on earth.
Also, who would want to survive with all of those elite rich people who paid a billion euros to survive? Methinks slaves!
Depressing in how they screwed up the science and made some idealistic drivel out of it.

 

[truth seeker]

I unfortunately saw this movie. One of the things I did like about it however was how one psychopathic character (Oliver Platt) attempted to take charge of the operation. What was really annoying was how the characters who supposedly had a conscience somehow came to rationalize their choices regarding the cover up (Chiwetel Ejiofor) told his father what was going to happen, but was fine with not letting other people know. If I had done that, the guilt would have eaten me up.

That being said, I suppose it speaks to how regular people somehow hope that others will do the right thing and sit back thereby colluding with the very forces/ideas they oppose.

 

[Erna]

Just saw it. Very disappointing.

[quote author=shijing]
Emmerich spent $250 million and didn’t check how high the Drakensberg Mountains were
[/quote]

Yeah, everyone burst out laughing in the end. Kilimanjaro anyone? The special effects were done well though, and I really like John Cusack, so all is not lost.

And, what's up with that face of the Africa in the end?

I think the water was still receding, therefore the funny shape.