2012

Featured 2012 Movie Review

by Rony

If you have to believe the Mayans and the predictions about the end of this world on or around 21 December 2012, you just imagine what would happen to this globe. Director Roland Emmerich ( The Independence Day’ and ‘The Day after Tomorrow’ fame) turns your imagination into a feature film forcing you to hold on to your seats for about 150+ minutes, to witness that spectacular show of disaster. No one would really like to watch the end of the world, but the film ‘2012’ makes you believe the real cause of earthquakes and tsunami. To the surprise of Indian viewers the film begins with a scene in India, where an American Scientist Dr. Adrian Helmseley(Chiwetel Ejiofer) visits a mine of his Indian friend who is a Geophysicist. It is at this place, he comes to know about the nearing of the disaster and rushes back to his country to inform the House and the President.

Almost at the same time, Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), who is a divorced husband and a writer, comes to know about the preparations to counter the possible disaster and the warning signals. He rushes to pick up his ex-wife, her boyfriend and his children. The film almost takes you on an adventure filled voyage, while showing the disaster striking the southern part of America and the family trying to escape through a small and later a big Aircraft.

In US, the President refuses to board the ‘Airforce One’ for safety along with his White House team and instead like a duty bound Captain of a sinking ship, prefers to stay back with other helpless citizens praying for their survival. His daughter and the Scientist have however been forced to board the aircraft on the orders of the President. The catastrophe strikes at the expected hour and the audience witness the effect of the same on the big screen. Now, the destination for the ‘Airforce One’ and Jackson’s family is to reach China, being predicted as the safest place, where they have constructed huge arks beneath the Himalayan mountains to withstand such natural calamity.

The director has very efficiently picturised the climax at this stage, showing the tsunami striking one of the arks and Jackson and his family trapped in one of the chambers, due to the gates of the ark getting jammed. Like a real hero of our Bollywood film, Jackson and his son trace the hanging cable and manage to get back into the ark. In the final scene the director shows the sunshine on opening the gates of the ark to land the survivors safely somewhere in a African continent, which is capable of supporting human life in future.

2012 is surely a grand and spectacular film made by Sony Pictures Company. The special effects and photography is simply great, never before seen on the screen. Now, whether you really believe in such prediction or not, the film is certainly a good presentation of a fiction, based on imagination and research. The director also goes on to show the attitude of different people in the time of crisis. He has covered the China border and Tibet with good camera work and also tried to highlight the ideology of Lama as far as the humanity is concerned, through few good characters. It is a timely film, making everyone aware about the possible effects of Global warming.