2012 : Much Ado About Nothing

Every form of entertainment has a moment where it asks of its audience
"this is the point where you either buy and for for the ride, or opt out".
2012 is a nearly endless parade of these moments, bombarding the viewer
with an escalating series of ridiculous images, until one either relents
or shuts down completely.
Using the formula of the Day After Tommorrow, director Roland Emmerich,
takes nuggets of theoretical science, mixes in some techno-babble, and
compresses the timeline by decades, resulting in a lightning quick end of
the world scenario. The titular 2012 is the date in the Mayan calender,
the Macguffin of the film, that is thought to represent the apocalypse. As
the sun begins flaring at a magnitude never before recorded, it changes
the mass of previously massless particles called neutrinos (this is the
techno-babble). The change causes widespread electro-magnetic disruption
of the world's surface, leading to eventual calamity.
A cabal of the world's most powerful leaders (initially informed at the
2010 G8 summit) conspire to hide soon-to-be-end, in order to preserve the
culture and art of humanity. Simultaneously, they work with CHina to
create a fleet of massive reinforced ships (called Arks,naturally) that
will withstand the coming storms. Geological events grow more powerful and
it becomes clear that the end will happen sooner than expected, throwing a
handful of people into a race for survival.
Propelled by relentless momentum, 2012 efficiently,if non-sensically, sets
up the plot in the first 30 minutes of the film. From that point forward,
the movie is essentially one epic set-piece after another, begining with
the destruction of California.
I have not mentioned the cast of the film nor will I, as the film itself
renders them moot. A series of cyphers that are never truly in jeopardy,
they exist only to justify the impossible images that roll across the
screen. The thrills of the film emminate from the images themselves, and
the clinical lack of attachment shown to humanity at large. Unimaginable
number of people are killed in the mounting catastrophes, and the cast,
though pointless, is large enough that members are elimated simply because
there is nothing left for them to do. Two characters joined by co-
incidence witness a massive Tsunami despite being seperated by a
continent. A character lives long enough to rescue her dog, another
rescues his cardboard cutout kids. In the end, the people of the story
simply don't matter, as the story is literally bigger than them.
Visually the film is stunning. An enormous FX budget is clearly displayed,
as eye candy tears up the screen every 20 minutes. From massive shales of
Los Anglelos coasts lifting into the air and sinking into the sea, to the
caldera of the Yellowstone national park becoming active in a biblical
manner, the effects work is unparalleled in its realism.
Though the story is obstensibly about the end of the human race and the world as we know, the scale is so massive and the stakes so low, it never rises above cheap thrills. The human face of 2012 is wooden and impassive, and fails to engage. There is no sense of loss amid the cacophony of destruction and thus no impact.