Archive for November 15th, 2009

Short Take: Incredible to look at but sells itself a little short

Director: Roland Emmerich (Independence Day)

Screenwriters: Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser (10,000 B.C.)

Cast: John Cusack (1408), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Children of Men), Amanda Peet (Whole 9 Yards), Thandie Newton (Crash), Oliver Platt (The Ice Harvest)

Length: 2h 38m

Synopsis: In 2009 geologists discover that abnormally large solar flares from the sun have begun to heat the earth’s core to higher temperatures than it’s meant to withstand. They calculate that in a few years the earth’s core will reach such high temperatures that the crust will become unstable and completely reorganize itself, resulting in mammoth earthquakes and tsunamis. The Mayan calendar ends on December 21^st, 2012. As it turns out, they weren’t far off.

Analysis: Self-described as a disaster movie, 2012 can then be presumed to take just as much (if not more) pride in its visuals (form) than its story (content). The film’s visual effects (and in this case by association its aesthetics in general) are debatably the most realistic of any film to date. It would not be a stretch for someone to consider the film as sublimely beautiful (regarding of course the realistic quality of the images, not the havoc and misery that such images depict). Read the rest of this entry »