I agree with the other excellent reviews here on allconsuming. Despite that, I don’t think 2012 is “not worth consuming”; I give it a wishy-washy rating.

The movie starts out with some scientists discovering that neutrinos from a large solar flare have “mutated” and begun “acting like microwaves” to heat up the earth’s core. Thus, you are given an idea of the quality of the movie from the get-go.

We follow a family as they manage to stay just inches ahead of disaster, in various vehicles: limo, RV, small plane, large plane, giant ship. Added to the mix is a smattering of ethical dilemma about who gets to be saved when the world ends, and some tear-jerking moments when various arbitrarily introduced characters bid a fond farewell to their loved ones.

So, it’s a mediocre movie, but despite that, I found it mildly entertaining, although not really what I want from an end-of-the-world movie (it’s not the end of the world when a ton of people survive). To give you an idea, as a disaster movie, it’s slightly better than the 2008 remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still and not as good as Cloverfield (I like my weird monsters).

Favorite memorable quote:

Noah Curtis: Woah, that’s a big plane.

Yuri Karpov: It’s Russian.

Ok, I was prepared to put my brain on hold and just enjoy the latest Hollywood action/special effects achievements. But some of the effects were really shoddy and I was not even slightly impressed.

My brain obliged and stayed turned off for most of the movie, but couldn’t refrain from making a sly comment every now and then. Like, transporting animals with helicopters at who-knows-how-many feet? Yeah, nice way to get a slab of frozen elephant meat. Praising the Chinese for the finished product and delivery way before deadline? Hm, isn’t China the main buyer of US bonds? And yeah, the US president was on a “diplomatic mission” to China recently. Interesting. Everybody showing just how ‘human’ they are when saving a hundred thousand people from certain death? Those 100K people were those who paid massive amounts of money to be saved – ie. the rich and powerful, people who most often get their money by screwing others. Gee, thanks for populating the brave new world with greedy sociopaths! The “ordinary” people mostly die or almost get everyone else dead because they interfere with the process that the rich and powerful designed and which would have proceeded flawlessly if it weren’t for those “ordinary” people.

I should know better than fume at the latest Hollywood crap, but I was thinking recently how I tend to turn off my brain when reading books or watching movies, and I’m just soooo glad it’s not really true. Thank you, brain!

I’m also very happy I didn’t have to pay for the ticket. Because I’d be really fuming if I had to cough up money for this!

Typical Hollywood movie meant for fans of outrageous graphics.

In my opinion, a glorious waste of money and time to watch the movie. A simple summary- The hero outruns earthquakes, tsunamis by driving a van! In the process he saves his dear family and manages to not save his ex wife’s new boyfriend.

I have not watched such trite in a while.

Generic Hollywood ‘disaster movie’ fare. Despite the special effects and the sounds, the movie is not moving, not engaging, not thrilling – not even a bit.