2012

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December 7, 2009  
Filed under Reviews

By Ashley Bagwell

   Keeping in mind the fact that major Hollywood moviemakers have never found it important to remain true to the scientific nature of the way things work, 2012 delivers a healthy dose of disaster and enough amazing special effects to entertain its audiences and earn $148,787,000 as of Dec. 6.

   Any sentient being who purchases a ticket to see this movie goes into the theater expecting the cataclysm and special effects, not the scientific explanations behind them. In this area it excels, as audiences enjoy just over two hours of Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) and his family running, driving, and flying away from earthquakes and floods in a movie which does rely very heavily on CGI based destruction.

   With the use of special effects Roland Emmerich, director successfully delivers the onscreen demise of several cultural and religious sites around the world, including St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican and the statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro. However, one landmark was off-limits in the movie: The Kaaba which, is considered by many to be the most sacred site in Islam. All Muslims around the world face the Kaaba during prayers, no matter where they are.

   Emmerich stated in an interview with scifiwire.com that he did actually consider destroying it onscreen, but said that his co-writer Harald Kloser told him, “I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie.”

(A fatwa in the Islamic faith is a religious opinion concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. Western media frequently uses the term incorrectly to specifically mean an Islamic law pronouncing a death sentence upon someone who is considered an infidel or a blasphemer.)

   Movies like 2012 tend to provide very little substance and only vague attempts at scientific explanation, which makes them very easy for critics to pick apart. Looking at this movie for what it is, a disaster movie, it becomes clear that it has certainly delivered on its premise.