Maggie Noodle Review - 2012

Roland Emmerich has been leading up to this movie. Step by step, disaster by disaster. The man hit the big time with Independence Day, then went on to make Godzilla, where he destroyed big chunks of New York City, and then onto The Day After Tomorrow, where he began to think global. In 2012 Emmerich takes his art to its logical conclusion - he takes on the entire world and destroys it, and then ends with a rejigged distribution of landmasses. Disaster movies do not come any bigger than this.

(Of course, the cynic might point out that there's other planets, the solar system, the Milky Way, and finally the universe, so Emmerich may still have some tricks up his sleeve).

The movie has all the ingredients required for a disaster movie and faithfully checks though each and every one of them. The plucky hero, the separated wife, the lovable kids, the other boyfriend, the...never mind, you get the drift. You know the eventual fate of every character the minute they appear on the screen and are not surprised when you are proved right.

But everyone knows this going in. It's not as if the previews were misleading. So, knowing that, I'm here to tell you that Emmerich delivers on his promise. The special effects are top notch, the action sequences are incredulous but they carry you along through sheer force of will and if you don't worry too much about accuracy and storytelling you will get your money's worth. The world may not end the way Emmerich predicts, but boy, if it does it will be hard-pressed to beat him for sheer magnitude and effect!