Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 34 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 484 Ratings

  • Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, John Cusack, Thandie Newton
  • Summary: Never before has a date in history been so significant to so many cultures, so many religions, scientists, and governments. 2012 is an epic adventure about a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors. (Sony Pictures)
  • Director: Roland Emmerich
  • Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Drama, Thriller
  • Rating: PG-13
  • Runtime: 158 min
  • More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 34
  2. Negative: 6 out of 34
  1. There's something to be said for a formula picture done almost to perfection. In 2012, Emmerich gives you everything you expect, but gives it to you bigger.
  2. Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    80
    2012 isn't a bad movie that, out of sheer boredom, you might snicker at once or twice; it's a two-and-a-half hour laugh riot that plays on our expectations of the genre by anticipating and exceeding them.
  3. 50
    The last 40 minutes test your patience -- and intelligence -- in a way the rest of this big, dumb, crazy movie never does:
  4. 38
    Perhaps the strangest thing about 2012 is that the bad parts of the film are among the most enjoyable, because they're so over-the-top ridiculous that it's impossible not to break out laughing.

See all 34 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 76 out of 212
  1. Actually I'll just wait for the day that supposedly the world will end, to make my criticism, then I'll have more critics where to get the facts. For now leave this brief message to remember. Expand
  2. Good story line and movie in general but to me there wasnt enough violence. By violence I mean people attacking other people with knives, guns etc. not natural disasters. The ending was the only bad part to me, it lasted way too long otherwise I would have given the movie a 10. Expand
  3. 200 million dollars to make a film feels quite pointless, when the film consists characters that are bland, annoying and have no stable characterisation, not to mention any character development. "2012" suffers very badly from it's frustrating characters and therefore, the idea and the point behind it go missing.

    The script is quite predictable as well, but "2012" at least manages to pull out some amount of entertainment from it's disasters which do feel enough appealing and effective to at least give this movie a try.
    Expand
  4. 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

See all 212 User Reviews

Trailers