Is it really the end of the world in 2012? Well according to the film that is. I have been waiting for the film to be released since May of this year and when I watched it on the opening day, I wasn’t disappointed. Actually it even surpassed my expectations. Usually films which invest so much on press release and promotion ends up as a disappointment when the actual showing of the movie begins. Often times, the movie has been previewed on TV that there is no more scenes unseen and interesting left for the moviegoers to devour. But like Harry Potter series and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, 2012 saved the best for last. There were scenes not shown on promotional materials yet it didn’t fail to garner the approval of the moviegoers.

The movie is an obvious sci-fi-slash-supernatural-slash-disaster flick loosely based on the prevailing theory that the world will end on 2012 as what the Mayan calendar predicted.

It stars John Cusack (Jackson Curtis) as the scifi book author turned Limo driver who discovered by accident that the Government was covering up the truth that the earth’s crust will disintegrate and collapse. He then rented a private plane in order to get his kids, his estranged wife (Kate – Amanda Peet) and her boyfriend (Gordon – Thomas McCarthy) out of LA which was already at the helm of disaster. They then met John Cusack’s billionaire boss (Yuri – Zlatco Buric) in Las Vegas airport which allowed them to join the trip just because of Gordon’s flight experience. And the story developed from thereon.

Though the story is very predictable, very ID4-ish and very cheesy at some point yet I will still give a thumbs up for its magnificent special effects which really made the audience in my hometown shriek to death. The guy next to my seat was so carried away by the FX that he dugged his head during the scene were debris and cars fly towards the screen. The dialogues were not that as brilliant as ID4 or as dramatic as Armageddon. But the performance of Oliver Platt as the “self-centered” and “control freak” Secretary of State was very convincing. I almost threw my popcorn and coke on him at some point. As expected, since it is a Roland Emmerich film who is fixated with blowing up international landmarks, there are sets of human drama wrapped around every disastrous scene. Worthy to note is:

1) The aspect of love for family as what the main protagonist exhibited when he rescued his children and his estranged wife together with the third party boyfriend.

2) The meaning of Love highlighted during the Indian family’s decision to stay together as the tsunami approaches instead of running for their life (which is obviosly a useless attempt).

3) The determination to survive

4) The Good Samaritan act as what the young Buddhist Monk did when he picked up John and his family on the road and even letting them join them in the ark

5) The Spirit of Universal Genorosity when world leaders (except the US Secretary of State) Unanimously decided to let the remaining passengers enter the ark. This was of course made the film sympathetic instead of rendering the whole story insensitive and dark.

6) and of course the Divine virtue of Hope.

Though the film showed some good points, yet it also exhibited some obvious loopholes in the story which brings to question its continuity and realism in real life. Like for example:

1) The President decided to stay behind. Though it showed that the US president was humane and in one with his people, yet in real life, no matter how the US President insist in staying behind, the US Presidential protocol would not let it happen. Advisers, Cabinet Members, Chief of staff and some white house aides would definitely ensure that the President survive especially in the most critical of all times.

2) The lone survival of the Secretary of state. It is very unlikely that the only high official that was left alive is the SOS since the President would ensure that his staff and think tanks would survive in order to ran the remaining population of humans.

3). The tsunami was very unlikely. The central plot of the movie is the collapsing crust of the earth surface. Therefore, if given that the core of the earth is hallow inside and the land surface collapses, isn’t it only logical that water would rather be engulfed by the space in the earth’s crust rather than elevate them as high as the Himalayas?

4) When the Limo ran along the LA highway going to the airport, the ground started to break in a domino like effect as if the cracks are chasing the car. If it will collapse, it will collapse in whole and not in parts and the car would definitely be swallowed by the earth.

5) the backdoor is guarded only by one man and it seems it is unknown to many people. In real life all point of entry will be flagged by millions of people who wanted to survive and no unknown entrance point will be undisclosed since people will try hard to find ways in entering the ark. Even a hole as small as a mouse’s hole will be searched by the people just to enter the ark.

But these loopholes doesn’t match what I noticed about the movie. Apparently, if you are a keen observer, there were no other religious site that was destroyed in the movie except the Jesus Statue in Rio de Janeiro and St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome. Apparently according to some critics, Roland Emmerich avoided blowing up Moslem religious site such as the Mecca because of fear of the Fatwa. According to the Guardian:

The 53-year-old director had wanted to demolish the Kaaba, the iconic cube-shaped structure in the Grand Mosque in Mecca that Muslims the world over turn towards every day when they pray and which they circle seven times during the hajj pilgrimage.

But after some consideration, he decided it might not be such a smart idea, after all.

“I wanted to do that, I have to admit,” Emmerich told scifiwire.com. “But my co-writer Harald [Kloser] said I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie. And he was right.

“We have to all, in the western world, think about this. You can actually let Christian symbols fall apart, but if you would do this with [an] Arab symbol, you would have … a fatwa, and that sounds a little bit like what the state of this world is.

“So it’s just something which I kind of didn’t [think] was [an] important element, anyway, in the film, so I kind of left it out.”

Some critics and catholics who saw the movie said that this is an utter cowardice on the Part of Emmerich. Obliterating Christian sites while too afraid of lifting a finger against Islam’s Holy Sites. Makes sense, after all, Emmerich is a well known Marxist. They only go after Christians because they know they won’t resort to Jihad  or Fatwa.

I’ll give the movie 3 out of 5 bananas for Great Special effects but weak convincing power.