The film was nothing more than another Hollywood publicity stunt driven by special effects. And the effects weren't spectacular anyway. The effects looked cheap, rushed, and was the only thing that was keeping this movie alive. The major downfall of this movie is that it was made to begin with. Not even great actors like Danny Glover could save this movie. Spending the entire time in a russian plane trying to escape disaster? Get real.… Expand

I just wasted 2 and a half hours on this rancid film. How Roland Emmerich keeps making bad blockbusters with seemingly no accountability for them is a mystery to me. The main characters are painfully bland. There is no chemistry between any of the actors. Absolutely no character in the movie was developed. All you get is eye candy(CGI) and scenes that will make any physic professor reel in horror.… Expand

The fact that this movie made it to the big screen proves without a doubt that the human race is in fact doomed. It is truely depressing to see that so many of my intellectually challenged countrymen enjoyed this. All copies of this movie should be destroyed and everyone who had a part in creation of this visual filth should be banished to an island to prevent them from making another movie as terrible as this.… Expand

Awful movie with poor acting and story.

Before seeing this movie, I already knew what to expect, a few death defying moments, some "wow, this is impossible" survival tactics, and stuff getting messed up, when I actually saw the movie, it left me with a "been there, done that" type of feeling. The entire family aspect of the movie was garbage. Everytime they showed that family on the screen made me want to turn it off. It seemed like everything went exactly perfect for them. Every thing feel exactly into place, and they are surviving all of these outragous scenes while the other billions of people in the world are dying. Really? That's bull. The entire movie wasn't horrible, a lot of the speeches between family members (ie. Father-son, father-daughter, grandfather-granddaughter) scenes were extremely good, aside from the main family of course. It just seemed too happy ever after for me. All of the people in the movie that most people would want to kill of end up dying while the main family stays perfectly fine. A load of steaming "our family can survive anything" dog crap. Take the main family our of it and its a really great film, but seeing how it was geared towards them, really blows.… Expand

This movie was a hideous mess and particularly painful because of its length. What went wrong with this movie? Everything.

Oh my god so horrible boring, action with this horrible patriotic we will save everyone feeling, sorry but fire loud and boomboom with expensive special effects is not exiting in this setting. today not acceptable anymore.

Released a bit late in certain cities in India. But save your money and time at least on this one. I am sure this question must have been answered 1000 times. But why is the American family always portrayed to be dysfunctional? And the kids, why do they pass judgment about everyone? It becomes too predictable. There is nothing left for your imagination and the excitement..YAWN.

You can count on a Roland Emmerich disaster film to be a disaster. In the tradition of his '10,000 BC' and 'Godzilla', '2012' stands as another badly acted, incoherent, poor science, awful CGI, and overlong film. Undoubtedly it made a lot of money in its initial release because that is what Emmerich does best and will continue to do. I really tried to like this film. I did not expect 'Citizen Kane'. But this film is awful in it's impossible misuse of every science in the known universe. If you must watch this film, do it as I did: Consider it a comedy. You will laugh yourself silly. I will spoil it for you right from the start: Ask yourself how John Cusak can drive with 2 young kids in a limo from southern California to Yellowstone National Park, back to southern California, and then back again to Yellowstone National Park in 2 days. Destined to be a midnight cult classic of bad filmmaking.… Expand

Here we have an example of how to make a disaster movie. The formula is simple: add a boring plot that is completely science-fiction; slap on dull, uninteresting characters; and finally, make the story so ridiculously predictable that you can tell what is going to happen at the end during the first 40 minutes. While the special effects are incredible (easily some of the best I've seen in a movie), it suffers from bad characters, a dull story, and it's overly long length.… Expand

This movie is brain damage on a projector screen. The special effects were clumsily misused so that rather than making something intense and interesting - it's boring and predictable. Cut the special effects from this movie and you are left with very little. But blaming the film makers is simple minded, it's the retarded adult movie goers who are to blame by watching and then letting these film makers get away with this rubbish. We actual could have a better film industry with better movies if people had bigger minds and weren't so easily entertained by this laughable joke. LAME.… Expand

This movie is exactly what's wrong with most CGI-driven blockbusters. There is no character development, the acting and dialogue stink, there isn't a single original idea in the whole movie and it relied too much on bad science moments. Unimpressed to put it lightly.

Although 2012 is very visually impressive, the film is very scientific incorrect and is very far fetched. The film many consists on SFX and BS moments instead of a good story.

A movie where you find yourself laughing where you shouldn't have been laughing. It's in the film that you find yourself laughing at parts that are unintentionally hilarious, due to sloppy writing and the usual special effects driven trash. There's almost nothing in this movie to review, it was just a 2 hour coma, occasionally interrupted by a couple of special effects sequences, all of which are ridiculous in nature, and all of which look less and less impressive each time we are shown them. The characters are painfully bland and uninteresting, no depth to them whatsoever. Emerich's previous film in the disaster category; The Day After Tomorrow, should have been a clear indicator that the guy can't write inspired disaster films very well.There is far, far too much emphasis on special effects in this film. One thing that also intensely grated me was when I watched a trailer for this film, with the bold assertion on a title card "It could really happen". Sorry, Emerich, but when science and the Mayans themselves attach no special significance to 2012, don't try and think you can market your film as being scientifically supported and expect me to swallow the kind of **** you're selling. You did the same with The Day After Tomorrow, I didn't fall for it then, don't expect me to this time. Try making good films, Emerich, you might learn something.… Expand

(January 14, 2010)
Are you ready for the year 2012? So many venues claim that come 2012 the world as we know it is going to come to an end, so why not make a generic, soul less, explosion happy film about it?
When I first heard that a movie was being made based off the happenings of 2012, I had hope that it would be more than a cliche end of the world movie, and actually go in depth on the behind the scenes topics of the year. Sadly clichÃ… Expand

The worst film i watched! I am not believe in stories about the end of the world and I think that director of this film is an idiot! Don't spend your time and your many on such stuped film!

Well, people justify a positive review by comparing this film with common movies made in Hollywood, and recently baked ones. Exactly, presently made in Hollywood. Except the universe is not Hollywood neither cinema was born today. If you still believe cinema was created a few years ago and you think the film industry gravitates Hollywood, well, you're wrong and you probably ate too much popcorn. You'll love this one if that's the case. Not in case, you'll only taste a synthetic audience statistics bombastic and orgasmic glutton of a C series packed with good actors. That's all, you'll be hungry few minutes after you've seen this rubbish, and when you get home you'll be pissed for wasting your money, believing in fairy promotional cultural religious tales. But as you said, it's Hollywood!… Expand

So, John Cusack, Oliver Platt and Zlatko Buric are total dabblers in acting and Roland Emmerich is completely untalented in terms of writing. But 2012 is no 0-points-movie. There are some nice actors in this box-office-success and when the German director is making whole LA drown, it is impressive. But this movie is just unfavorable. This so damn overlong film is fully packed with buildings crumbling, waves overflooding great areas, earthquakes destroying whole cities and CGI everywhere. Too much of that, Mr. Emmerich! I have to grant him that he managed to put emotion in it with the family stuff surrounding John Cusack's role. This guy totally sucks at acting and his movie kids relegated him when they were playing together, but this one particular scene at the end of the movie touched me. But for all that it's not really hard to make such a scene emotional when you've got a nice soundtrack and a near-death-experience with a family as the story. So, is 2012 worth watching? Not really, because the FX aren't that good to make you enjoy the movie (I just overthought the movie and I get that you can never really enjoy a movie with such a plot!) and the dialogues are plain stupid. However, it's not that bad because of some nice actors and good editing, score and cinematography stuff.… Expand

Very good premise, expertly ruined by the director who loves to destroy America, but make them look very much the patriot. we have the President who will not leave his lawn, because he is the hero, yet our Queen is on the 'boats' with her beloved corgis. the cast are okey, but we have the typecast people we have all come to know and love in these films, and anyone who stays with the dos lives!! despite the admittedly good effects, this film isn't about humanity and people coming together as one, this is about Cusaks charachter and all the people who have caused him harm, dying in fantastical ways. it's way too long, relies too much on effects and not plot or script, and the ending and final lone are vomit inducing. not a very good film… Expand

I give this movie a 4. Why because it focuses way to much on the special effects and way to little on the story and character. You barely get to any characters. The only character they really tell you about is Jackson Curtis. Other characters like Charlie and the U.S President made the movie exciting, but the others just made it crappy. Don't go and see this movie. It would be a waste of you time.… Expand

I thought that this movie was going to be the best movie ever but after sitting in the theater for 2 1/2 hours i was like why the heck did i come here. It was like Transformers all over again. The only reason i gave it a four was because of John Cusacks acting made me want to stay and finish it.

I give it a one because it has a great premise. That doesn't save it from being the STUPIDEST movie I've ever seen in my life.

One of the worst Emmerich movies. Such a waste of money.

The neighborhood theater

The special effects were amazing, but the movie had too many flaws. First, it was very depressing, if you want to see GOOD people die over and over again, then be my guest. Secondly, the characters were boring, so you have to see the boring first half before things get destroyed to really feel how boring the characters are. Finally, the movie is very unoriginal, the whole movie is a modern day Noah's Ark, in almost ALL ASPECTS. I haven't been disappointed in a movie I was looking forward to in awhile.… Expand

This movie has way to much death. It's also really sad. I say there is to much death because the president , pope, and pretty much all of California dies.

my rating is ONLY for the visual graphics as for the story line it just seems so ridiculous that the whole plot is a family running away from the world. It doesn't address any issues or cover any of its flaws like how everything miraculously appears before the protagonists e.g the jet being there just in time. Anyway I just wanted to say I will see you all in 2013, when someone decides to make a real movie.… Expand

I don't know why the main characters have to dodge death twenty times in the movie. Its a disaster movie so i'd expect one or two times where death is avoided only by a few feet...but wow it felt like every other scene in this movie. i'll give it a score of 1 because the special effects were pretty cool. the writing and acting were terrible though. why is there always some snotty kid who calls his father by his real name? that right there, is the question.… Expand

Nearly as bad as "Speed 2". For example, the family just make it into a plane and just manage to take off, and just avoid falling buidlings / trees / mountains in the plane - 3 times. It was like de ja vu all over again.

Two... hundred... million dollars! FOR THIS?! After stopping it twice, I finally watched it through to the end simply through morbid curiosity, and now I'm genuinely infuriated at it! I'm going to the DVD store and asking the shy timid counter boy for my money back at full volume!!! Then I'm going to buy all the copies they have and BURN them in a fire out the front of the shop so that the stupidity doesn't spread any further. Then I'm going to find out where the director, the writer AND the producers live and have them all savaged by starving komodo dragons until only their molars remain.... Every terrible cliche was there... the black president, the doombringer scientist, some idiot saying "By God.... That's impossible!", the lowly scientist being sent straight to meet the President, the useless divorced husband winning the wife and kids back.... I am now certifiably down to 50 IQ points with the rest of the people who watched this piffle. They should rename it "Daddy Runs From Armageddon" in reference to the six, count them, SIX times Cusack drives a car, a plane, a campervan or whatever.. out of the incoming firestorm/wave/pig stampede. It now tops my list as the worst movie I've ever seen.… Expand

If my review were based only in special effects, then the movie deserves 10/10. However all the good effects are lost in a lame and unrealistic plot; some humor is also injected in disastrous situations which is totally unnecessary. The main characters never suffer a scratch and they made it to the other part of the world, where everybody else...well...dies. Silly movie. Please skip this one.

Continents displace, super volcanoes erupt, cities vanish, tidel waves swallow the Himalayas...every distaster you could possibly imagine is in this movie...except one that shouldn't be....THE SCRIPT!!!!!

Just real bad.

Although I enjoyed the great CGI and all the explosions and firey balls of doom, the script was just so cheesey it was unbearable. Any movie with the lines 'it's a suicide mission!' and 'we have to wait for dad!' (right before he pulls him self from the bottom of a crevasse) is just bound to be crap.

What a waste of time. Whoever worked in the dialogues and the story of this movie, please don't disappoint us again or please just change career. I give it one point because I had a good laugh at the joke of the Russian guy in the car.

Very poorly paced movie. This is not Independence Day, no matter how hard it tries to be. There is absolutely no sense of humor or humility in this film. Save your money and time, and wait for the actual apocalypse... it is sure to be more entertaining.

Are you kidding? 2 and a half hours.. 8 dollars... and 3 planes barely taking off as the runway collapses later... im still bored.. This reminded me more of a movie spoof than an original thriller. Special effects weren't bad but it lacked any sort of captivating story or believable scenarios.

I would of preferred a more serious/realistic movie. But what I got was a dumb action movie with nothing more then special effects.

Just pure cheesy. Nothing is believable as the suspense is lost within 5 minutes into the movie.

Good effects, but the humanity speech by the geologist at the end was a predictable bunch of Hollywood do-do. The movie was trying to be a thriller about what could really happen, but instead, just layered cliche upon cliche. What a dud.

Way to long!! 2 1/2 hours, I should have known better that Roland Emmerich's ego knows no bounds. Skip this movie.

Probably one of the worst, overrated natural-disaster-sci-fi movie of the decade.

I went in expecting to love it because I tend to love movies about the apocalypse. I loved Deep Impact, Armageddon, The Day After Tomorrow, I Am Legend, and so on... but this was the cheesiest and least fulfilling movie of its genre I have ever seen. The only thing that kept me in the theatre was the cinematography and the fantastic graphic art. The storyline is terrible, the characters aren't relatable, and the music was beyond typical. I was only surprised by the absence the statue of liberty. Every other iconic image was present; why not throw her in there? ...with a bag of "pull-ups" in hand.… Expand

Willing suspension of disbelief or not the story is absolutely terrible , watching things sink into nothingness for an hour does not a good movie make.

A painfully cheesy series of last minute escapes made by characters you wish would die early so you can get out of this 160 minute embarrassment.

I did not like this movie very much. The effects were great, but besides that, there was really nothing else intriguing. Amanda Peet was of course great, as always, but the movie altogether was farfetched and often annoying (John Cusack crawling out of the pit that he surely would have died in).

Made me wish that the end of the world was going to happen during the movie. What a waste of time and money. I would have expected more from a movie calling itself 2012 - end of the Mayan Calendar, get it? Why not give us a good movie with that theme and drivers? This was just pure drivel.

Not remotely entertaining. You'll be thinking "Oh, they just survived there, the world is coming to an end 2 INCHES BEHIND THEM!!!" over and over again. A dreaded 2.5 hours.

Ooof. What a turd. The dialogue is diarrhea. It makes Independence Day look like Lawrence of Arabia. I kid you not, in the space of a few minutes (and while afloat), Air Force One is hurled at them, and they almost crash into Mount Everest. This movie is a total insult.

A movie that will make you weep for the entertainment standards of the average US citizen. Not surprising, but depressing.

Just saw this and it pretty much missed the mark at every level. It suffered from gaping plot holes, to many characters with no true lead and poor character development. The only redeeming quality is the CG and it's not good enough to spend almost 3 hours on for what turns out to be a laughably horrible movie. The scenes that were supposed to be sweeping and moving were simply terrible. The movie was stupid and it couldn't decide if it wanted to be a action blockbuster, drama, tragic comedy or a buddy flick ... two words describe this movie: identity crisis. It's not even worth a watch on DVD ... wait for it to hit the premium cable subscription circuit. All this from someone who was more pumped for this than anyone else.… Expand

It's expected for a movie like 2012 to press emotional buttons but the director ham-fistedly slammed against those buttons until you felt more used and manipulated than moved. Next scene would be a of unimaginable brutality as entire cities were wiped out, complete with adults and children screaming and grabbing for their lives. Despite the fantastic imagery the action scenes were typically lifeless with ancillary characters dying for what appears to have been laughs. I wanted to like this movie and was fully-prepared to suspend reality for the conspiracy theory stuff but the problem was that so many of the deaths were setup to be 'personal' right before the victim was snuffed. Overall a painful movie apathetic to the fact that they killed more people than every horror movie monster ever dreamed of.… Expand

Ugh ugh ugh ugh UGH. A movie that only cares about the visuals. and panders to the whiny angsty teenager who hates the human race because he can't get girls to talk to him. Forget having the cheesiest, stupidest plot in history and the dumbest melodrama. Can we try to have all those things without eye-rolling misanthropy?

This tired "The Day After Tomorrow" clone has yet ANOTHER broken family patching things up as they "just barely" outrun the destruction of the earth's crust. They "just barely" outrun crumbling buildings, fissures, volcanoes, and tidal waves at least five times. All the convenient people die after serving their purpose predictably. John Cusack takes needless detours so that we can chuckle along with the eccentric Woody Harrelson. Queen Elizabeth saves her corgis. All I can say is, "Thank God for online streaming." 2 points for the CGI.… Expand

It might have been the unsatisfying ending, the Biblical reference Emmerich goes to no length to shroud, or the convenient series of coincidences that allow our protagonists to reach safety, but this movie just left me frustrated and angry at myself for wasting two and a half hours on one of the worst movies of this decade. With the exception of Cusack, Glover and, surprisingly, Harrelson, the acting is mediocre at best, and not even Cusack's sarcasm and air of intelligence could salvage this array of absurdities (one of the members of their party just happens to have taken a couple of flight lessons, and is subsequently able to steer a small plane between falling buildings). As Travers put it, this is Transformers 2's biggest competition for the worst movie of this year and possibly this decade.… Expand

Wow. It's been a long time since i've paid good money to see a film THIS bad. I'm giving it a couple of points for effects, but they are literally the only thing remotely good about 2012. It's just so... so... dumb. And not dumb in a fun way, just dumb in a dumb way. If it wasn't so loud, I could have happily fallen asleep through it, which would have been a far better use of my time. Ugh. It was so unbelievably bad it actually made me a little angry.… Expand

The thing that a lot of people don't seem to understand is the fact that the Mayan/Aztec Calendar doesn't predict the end of the world when that Calendar ends. It simply is predicting the end of an age. Now compare this with the Catholic belief that the Archangel Uriel will come into control of the world in 2012 (the Archangels all take care of shaping the world every few centuries by switching shifts in a way), who was in control when the renaissance came around, and you have a very bright future to look forward to. The movie itself, while getting its subject material completely wrong, was just below mediocre. The special effects were good and the acting was decent. But there wasn't much plot other then the world is ending and i must protect my family. This team has been doing this thing over and over again, and they just don't be seeming to get the hint. I suppose that can be attributed to the fact that they're movies always have good advertising. But if you don't know how bad their previous works are, these are the guys that did the 1998 Godzilla. This is a popcorn flick, nothing more. I can't recommend it, but if you want the Transformer experience (lots of action, little [or stupid] plot) then i suppose you may come away entertained.… Expand

This was the most god awful big budget movie I've ever seen!! It made Independence Day look Oscar worthy.

Even the special effects couldn't save this movie! Over the top non believable action sequences got boring really quickly, to the point where you knew that the main characters were going to survive. Taking the suspense completely out for me.

I'm not kidding - This is the worst movie I have ever seen. At least 1/3 of the audience walked out before it ended. I skipped the last 10 minutes or so because I couldn't bear it. I hope the world ends before seeing this again.

I am a sucker! I look forward to disaster films and the big special effects, but when I come out of the theatre I feel cheated and bored. This goes for all the big disaster films of the past decade, and I really thought this one would be different (despite the reviews---GOD! For once I should listen to the reviews and stay away!). I know it's hard to ask for an ounce of reality in this type of blockbuster and to slice out a little of the cheese, but what was I thinking. It's always a dumbed-down idea in the script and I rolled my eyes throughout the film. Gimme back my money!!!!… Expand

I've never been so bored in all of my life. The acting was crap, the script was crap, the storyline was crap, even the cgi's which have been so hyped up, were nothing special. I really do believe this is the nastiest, tackiest hunk of junk I have ever been to see in my life.

This epic *had* to be over two hours long in order to cram in every imaginable cliche and every trite plot device. No twists here: whatever happen--you saw it coming from the beginning. The script is plodding and even good actors give underwhelming performances. Yes, the special effects are amazing, but nothing will be lost if you rent the DVD in 6 months.

I have to say that I fell for the marketing campaign on this movie. All the trailers, billboards, ads, etc. Even worse I do this for a living and I let this happen!? Where did I go wrong? Well for one believing that the cast could pull this off. Unfortunately impossible. John Cusack and Danny Glover. Wow. Should have really saw that coming. And how about the action in the movie? Well nothing you didn't see in the trailers except horribly repeated. OK OK. I know, the premise? Well I have to give in there. It might happen - we'll have to wait a few years to see, but I'll give them a few points for that. But all in all, a waste of $9 and 2 hours/50 minutes that I would like back please.… Expand

I didn't care that the movie would be implausible or lack a great screenplay. That's to be expected. What I didn't expect was how flat-out BORING the movie would be. When you have a boring action movie, it ceases to even be a movie anymore. It becomes an exorcise in tedium and frustration. I'd rather give myself a root canal than watch 2012 again. 1 point for Woody Harrelson, who did his best.… Expand

This movie was bad. Very bad. The script was bad, the acting was bad, and the camera work was bad. The only redeeming factor this movie has is the CGI, which is actually pretty good. I would not recommend this movie to anyone.

Well, that was 2 and a half hours of my life that I'll never get back. I couldn't wait for it to be over and found myself wishing that the earth would actually split open and swallow up the theatre so that it would be. Special effects were ridiculously over the top and the storyline was beyond predictable and cheesy. I've seen better plotlines in beer commercials. Painful.

This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen (worse than "I know who killed me"). There isn't a single redeeming thing in this entire piece of junk!

Just another movie about what America would look like in a disaster, with the occassional mention of what's happening in other countries, but, as usual, it all happens in the USA and the comic relief characters are those crazy foreigners, of course. It suffers from a problem that many films have, which is that it tries to be both a kids and an dults film at the same time. It has too much swearing to be a disney movie and not enough gore to be plausible. Too many close calls, typical main characters (almost exactly like War of the Worlds) and is dragged out for far too long. The worst part is the whole humanity BS the geologist guy goes on about. The best part is the graphics.… Expand

Terrible. I hope the $6 I paid for admission doesn't encourage the production of more films like this one.

Sooooo many earthquakes. This is a movie you will see for the effects. Unfortunately the cliche dead beat hero (with his family) story didn't quite do it for me, and was struggling to stay awake once I was desensitized to all the earthquakes and tidal waves.

Insulting, insipid script and hackneyed cliches ruin any chance the special effects might have had to redeem this waste of time. I wanted to like this, but the only part I liked was the dialogue at the end that was so corny it was unintentionally funny.

A dreadfully poor movie that made me feel embarrassed as a person with a brain. The catastrophe scenes were so huge and overwhelming that there was no context. The writing so poor that the acting was terrible. Melodrama at it's worst. Stay away.

I told myself, "if this car exits that plane I'm walking out," and despite a laugh-out-loud joke by the Russian billionaire in the car seconds earlier... walk out I did. First time I ever walked outta a movie and I nearly left long ago when a plane for about the 3rd time flew off a runway that was crumbling right behind it, followed by some occurance forcing the crew to have to navigate their way through falling debris and buildings, rather than simply being able to pull up to avoid it all. The special effects look great (and will have you going to watch this movie no matter how many bad reviews and warnings you read), but are waaaay too over-the-top and absurd in the worst Hollywood cliche of ways. Cars jumping gaps ala Speed; always being chased by an impending doom perfectly timed to be one sec behind the hero; vehicle being hit by meteor-sized volcanic debris yet still drivable; etc. Everything is pushed to such an extreme degree that its just too ridiculous to believe or bearable to watch over and over and over and over again. The movie became so cheesy I found myself laughing at things I wasn't supposed to be laughing at (e.g., dialogue exchanges that the director wanted to be emotional). Yeah, that's right... daddy's going down into molten lava in a Winnebago, his kids are screaming "Daddy, NO!", and I'm laughing my *ss off at the unbelievable silliness of the situation and how it got to this point. This movie's script is so mind-numbingly dumb that subjecting the audience to it for anything longer than 1.5 hours should be classified as torture. Unfortunately this movie goes on for 2.5+ hours. (you've been warned.)… Expand

Very pointless movie. Waste of money, time and effort. It's sad to see such good actors wasting their time on such a bad movie. Avoid at all cost.

Simply horrible...1 pt. for CGI which gets stale after the first few times you see what you already saw in the trailer...the script was actually insulting.

First movie this year I wanted to leave the theatre in the middle of the movie. A formula movie done cliche after cliche. It seems as if a robot directed it. Good CGI, though.

Great special effects do not make a good movie. Just so predictable that it becomes boring. The "close calls", one after another - each more implausible than the last - make the movie laughable to watch. Just silly. It could have been a "Wow!" movie, but instead it was "Wow, that was boring and stupid." This was the worst movie I've seen this year.

PAINFULLY HORRIBLE.... I havent seen a movie in the theaters for about 2 years before I saw this one and Im probably never going back.. There are so many things wrong with movie, I dont know where to start.. The sad thing is this could have been a great movie if they have put the right people on it.. Danny Glover as President?? Please.

After all these disaster films that Emmerich has thrown at us, he closes with an unsurprisingly stupid encore that is 2012 and yes this is the last disaster film he's going to throw at us, thank god. Like all the previous disaster films he made, lets list the obvious stupid: Lots of plot holes, inconsideration with factual science, tacky acting and the ability to make you look stupid. Since this film tackles the issue or at least try to of the survival of the human race, it is done so hypocritically and insensitively that you completely have no sympathy whatsoever. The main character is pretty much indestructible while the supporting characters are either death chowder or annoying plot devices and has completely no shame in thinking that the audiences are dumbasses. Upside; Effects look quite good. 'Nuff said.… Expand

Just when I thought that Transformers 2 was the epitome of ridiculous movies, Columbia Pictures once again distributes a ludicrous film with 2012. Films are at times meant to create an alternate world for the audience to experience, but in this case, it does not apply to situations that are purely coincidental to the point of inanity. Roland Emmerich's 2012, is a speculation of what will occur on the infamous date of December 12, 2012. The film focuses on Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), a failed writer who has recently gone through a divorce and is attempting to reestablish his family relationships. Meanwhile, the government is trying to cover up the pending apocalyptic event in order to save a select few individuals by building indestructible ships. When the earth-ending event occurs, Jackson Curtis tries to save his family in unbelievable and idiotic ways to reach China, the location of the modern day "Noah's Arc".

Up to this point, I have not qualified my complaints to this movie. In short and concise words, the whole movie is preposterous. For example, when Cusack is driving through the streets of Los Angeles, the whole city behind him is collapsing as he drives through it. Is it a coincidence that the earth shattering is occurring in the direction he is driving his limousine? Additionally, Cusack reaches a plane to escape to find out no one has the experience of piloting. His ex-wife's husband states that he has had two lessons and then he coincidentally drives the plane to almost near perfection. These are just some examples of 2012's ludicrous and laughable moments. They obviously speak for themselves and is the major flaw in the movie.

While these laughable moments of the film are its most significant blemishes, the dread does not stop there. As the same company that distributed Transformers 2, it seems that the company possesses a certain low standards of acting. With Megan Fox-tier acting - if you deem that acting - executed by the majority of the cast, it is a wonder why Woody Harrelson would succumb to be in a cast of this many D-listers. John Cusack does the same exact character he seems to always do, and that obviously is not of quality. Even though the cast is not top notch, the dialogue is even shoddier than the acting itself. With endless cliches ("we're tearing apart" *ground splits*), and strange European accents, nothing about the characters in the movie was redeeming.

2012 is another example of a modern day film with a hefty budget and lack of quality. To compliment the movie to some extent, the CGI was spectacular and is the superior aspect of the film. If extensive & mind-numbing entertainment is your type of movie, then by all means watch this film. But 2012's poor acting, plot, and dialogue were just too much for this movie-goer to the point of extreme revulsion.… Expand

After watching this movie I wanted to world to end. I was so mad about wasting my money on this instead of waiting for it to come to cable (probably in the year 2012 haha). Only a good movie if you want to see special effects and things crumbling down.

I must confess to being a little confused by this doomsday themed movie. Whilst obviously a cleverly constructed and well shot sequel, it appears to have picked up almost none of the story threads, none of the characters, and certainly none of the actors, from the movie that started the franchise. It's a fast-paced narrative, set 11 years after the end of the first movie, and introduced to a small group of new characters, led by the always reliable John Cusack, who confront a number of omens foretelling imminent cataclysmic events. As expected, they are soon struggling with a rapidly escalating series of natural disasters, always escaping with seconds to spare. In common with the first movie, there is a major plot-line involving contact with an alien race, but it is a completely new race of beings, at a very different stage of technological development, and with their own set of reasons for journeying to earth and assisting the human race. There is no doubting the craft and skill that has gone into the convincing creation of this chaotic world, and yet, I kept feeling shortchanged by the apparent abandonment of the storyline from the original movie. The glossing over of this discontinuity detracted from the spectacle, and I found myself wishing for more emotional substance to the story. Perhaps just a few scenes with the original movie's main characters David Bowman and Frank Poole would have provided this, not to mention some more time with the apes. On the plus side, it's filled with stunning scenes of destruction and mayhem, and who isn't excited by that kind of stuff? People scream and flee for their lives. Buildings crumple and crunch and snap. It's all very satisfying in the usual disaster movie way. There are frequent shots of cities and towns suddenly transforming into vistas of mass death and suffering, and who doesn't like to gorge on that kind of imagery? Clearly, it's a crowd-pleaser. Grab some popcorn, and go see it.… Collapse

2012 is a pity. It could honestly be such a great movie, and at times it shows that potential. But marring with the amazing sight of a private plane barely soaring over a crumbling Las Vegas is the horribly shallow characters and the paper-thin plot line. The movie talks about a family and how they are able to magically survive disasters that kill billions of other people. Of course, the stepfather just received a pilot's license yet can navigate through narrow gaps between falling pieces of earth during a massive earthquake, why shouldn't he be able to? Even worse than the main characters were the secondary characters; you don't learn really anything about the Russian guy except that he has two kids and a wife. The worst part is near the end, when they throw away the stepfather and forget about him as if he never existed. If you want some amazing setpieces, this movie is for you. If you don't, then just forget about it.… Expand

woow i can not believe how stupid and dumb this movie is, and i can not believe that many people liked it and if anyone gives a score above 4 must be a retard for real. 1 point for special effects, nothing else. this movie is like the disaster that happened in the actual scenes.

It was basically the "Dude Wheres My Car" of disaster movies, plus it was too long, they could have chopped off 50 minutes and it still would have made sense.

**** ****!1 ****!!!!!!!!!!!11 This movie well not scare the hell of me. Y'know this movie contains absurdities and cheesiness, multi-layerred cheesines.

2012 barely even catch the main theme, thinking that the world is going to be affected by natural disasters grabs my attention , but for a performance that mix's funny moments, exaggerated moments that feels unbelievable ( okay no movie is true of course ) . 2012 needed more realism and taking care of seriousness. Wait for 2013 people

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. 2012 is a deeply flawed and long-winded movie. It has some amazing special effects but they are used in such abundance that each time you see something majestic, you just know it's a computer generated image and not a set piece that was masterfully crafted by a craftsman that we'll still be watching pictures of 20 years later on (Robocop's ED-209, for example). If the horrible miscarriage of psuedo-science that the director has opted to portray wasn't enough to make you unable to be willing to suspend disbelief, knowing that almost every scene took place on a gigantic green tarp sure will. Especially two-and-a-half hours of CGI-viewing. Why on earth did this movie have to be so long? When we got to the 4th or 5th escape-from-disaster scene I just wished they would slam into something so we could move on to more interesting characters. Instead, they always got out on top. The acting wasn't bad, I think they did a good job with what they were given but most characters were just annoyingly optimistic or evil. Even though people claim that this is just a science-fiction flick solely intended to amuse us there is definitely a message to it as is evident from the conversations people have (Not fair that the workers aren't getting tickets, rich shouldn't be able to buy their way into salvation, et cetera) and the end scene of a gigantic connected landmass with Africa being the new center of the world. (Probably put a smile on Jimmy Cliff's face) Unfortunately, the message here is that individualism is great and that we're all terribly worthy of being saved and that human civilization up till this point has been awesome (The speech about how it's human to not leave anyone behind on the arc despite the absolute millions of murdered humans and destroyed habitats/species by civization before the movie was even conceived of.) and should continue to be awesome the way it was. (the "democratic" vote-scene to open the doors for the rich folks that wanted to get in) And, of course, the heroic, people's black American president refusing to take shelter and dying with his fellow countrymen. Unrealistic but cleverly compensated for by having the italian prime minister choosing the same course of action. Wouldn't want to make the Europeans feel like a bunch of cowards now would we? Once again, despite being "critical" of post-modern society, it's one of those "the more things change, the more they stay the same"-movies. This movie is a piece of Hollywood propaganda for the conformist, civilized masses that love the status-quo. Regardless, what really put me off was its length. Propaganda, poor acting and CGI-overload is fine but please, keep it within acceptable limits; some of us have brains that can be fried.… Expand

I particularly did not see any fun in this film is a kind of story that has been widely Wears and if you are not in order to see a movie "Everything is running out to save yourself if you can" again, then do not watch this movie.

What an utter CGI crap. No story, lame characters with no depth, unbelievable action sequences. As bad as any other cheap "B" class catastrophe movie, just with a big budget. Avoid it

Well I can say that this wasn't the best movie, but it was entertaining. The plot is basic world ending trying to get family to safety. The thing that drives the film are the effetcs which were good and believable. Other then that its boring. For the main part the acting was good especially the scene's between father-son and dad-son. Other then those two things the film would be nothing without the flashy special effects.I do feel comfortable saying that it is the best disaster film ever, but others might not. I do however think The Day After Tomorrow was better and written more clever. Watch if your bored or just want to see the world end in a clever way. [I appologize if any thing is messed up the space botton on the computeris messed up]… Expand