Went to see this film last night, billed as the "disaster movie to end all disaster movies", its VERY loosely based on the Mayan belief that the world as we know it will end in 2012 due to a number of natural disasters including massive earthquakes, tsunamis and solar flares.
Starring stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton, and Woody Harrelson and directed by by Roland Emmerich of 'The Day After Tomorrow', the film charts an ensemble cast of characters as they narrowly escape multiple catastrophes in an effort to reach ships in the Himalayas, along with scientists and governments of the world who are attempting to save as many lives as they can before the disasters ensue.
I have been waiting to see this as 'The Day After Tomorrow' in my opinion was a really good film, special effects were amazing and the plot was well developed.
But I was really dissapointed as 2012 is 2hrs and 45 mins of seen it before special effects and barely any plot. You would think that because the marketing campaign has used the Mayan theories as part of their advertising campaigns that this would be developed in the film but thats not the case.
Very dissapointing film.
2012
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CocoaButter
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JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. - If you want to destroy a hallowed Christian site on the big screen, that's OK. Just don't try doing the same thing to Islam.
In the upcoming 2012, disaster director Roland Emmerich turns his sights on the Vatican and crumbles the Sistine Chapel into dust. But when he proposed demolishing a Muslim shrine, as well, his colleagues on the project freaked out.
"I do not want to have a fatwa on my head because of a movie!" co-writer Harald Kloser objected. And, concedes Emmerich with a sigh, "he was right."
But there were few other curbs on the 54-year-old filmmaker's destructiveness during the making of the film opening Nov. 13. By page 30 of the script, Los Angeles is destroyed by a 10.5 earthquake. Yellowstone Park is consumed by a 30-mile-wide explosion of lava. The White House - occupied by beleaguered commander in chief Danny Glover - collapses under the onslaught of a massive tidal wave, and the Eiffel Tower has toppled.
This isn't the first time the German-born filmmaker has pulverized the planet. He did it with Independence Day and again with The Day After Tomorrow. This time, he's seized on the Mayan calendar and growing public paranoia that the ending of its current cycle on Dec. 21, 2012, will bring a catastrophe of epic proportions to the planet.
And this time, even the world's most sacred symbols are not protected by divine grace.
"For example, the Sistine Chapel and the famous painting where God and Adam touch fingers. I said: 'Oh, great, we have to show how this gets destroyed.' Then we said: 'Well, we are already there, so why don't we have the church fall on people's heads?' I am against organized religion, so that is how we thought of it. The message is;Never pray in front of a big church. Pray by yourself."
Before the filmmakers are done with the destruction of Michelangelo's timeless creation, the Pope also puts in an appearance. Emmerich figures that, because the recent Angels & Demons never showed the Pontiff, he had better go one better.
"I said: 'We have to see a little bit of him. He is the chairman, after all."
With the White House, Emmerich had already demolished it once in Independence Day, and worried he wouldn't get away with it a second time - but again, screenwriter Harald Kloser prevailed.
"If you don't destroy the White House, you will be asked about it," Kloser warned him.
"I cannot destroy the White House again," Emmerich protested.
"Well, just do it another way," Kloser insisted.
Emmerich remembered visiting old warships in the Chesapeake Bay region. This gave him a solution. This time, the dirty deed is done by a massive tidal wave that smashes the aircraft carrier JFK into the White House. "JFK comes back to the White House!" Emmerich says mischievously. "I thought it was kind of clever."
This filmmaker's courtly old-world manner doesn't conceal the obvious relish with which he decimates the planet. Because Yellowstone Park plays a significant role in the film, Emmerich and other colleagues on the project - including actors John Cusack, Amanda Peet and Britain's Chiwetel Ejiofor - are chatting with news reporters in a resort hotel in the wintry Wyoming wilderness. It's an opportunity for him to make clear that, despite the frightening subject matter, he sees 2012 as essentially a popcorn movie with a mandate to entertain. And he doesn't want audiences to get too hung up on troublesome subtexts about environmental change and the pillaging of the planet.
"I don't think the film is to warn about anything, so it is not a cautionary tale. Well maybe, it's a cautionary tale, in a way: If this is going to happen, what is important in life and what is savable and how should we save things? For me, I am always a little suspicious of governments, so it is also an expression of that."
But for Emmerich, the fun factor is predominant.
"I always think movies have to be fun. If a movie is not fun, I don't want to do it."
To deliver his fun ride took Emmerich five months and more than 13 Vancouver sound stages in five different locations. In addition, British Columbia's mountain interior around Kamloops stood in for Tibet and Yellowstone. And it was in these places that Emmerich set out to fulfil his vision. "I think Roland has found a way to stick almost every natural disaster you can imagine into this film," co-producer and visual-effects supervisor Marc Weigert commented recently.
In the film, the biggest threat to the planet comes from seismic and solar convulsions, which lead to flooding of biblical proportions. It's interesting that, despite his hostility to organized religion, Emmerich does draw on the Old Testament to create a world which can only be saved by mammoth vessels that provide safety for at least a fraction of the world's living beings.
"We cannot make a movie like this and end it badly. It would be kind of sad. In a sense, this is a modern retelling of Noah's Ark. You know, in Noah's Ark, there were survivors, and if you look at the end, there is hope. That is what we wanted to convey."
Still, for all the emphasis on escapism, the filmmakers sought to give it firm underpinnings through both scientific and mythological research. For example, Emmerich and Kloser noted that every civilization on earth has a "flood" myth. "Things are going wrong, society isn't working anymore, and the planet starts over," says Kloser.
The approaching end of the Mayan calendar gave them a hook on which to end their contemporary flood story - given that millions around the world expect something earth-changing will happen on Dec. 21, 2012.
However, Emmerich also delved into scientific fact and theory in preparing the film.
"From the beginning, there was the Earth's place-displacement theory, which was big enough, in a way, to cause all this flooding," Emmerich says. "Before we started writing the script, we actually met with a professor of science at USC, and asked him how it could all unfold. He told us first that he didn't believe in the displacement theory. We asked him if he could give us some insight, and he said the only way this could work is if a molecule mutated into another kind of particle. He said from that moment, all bets are off - no scientist would say that this could not happen, because it had never happened before. That was the concept we chose."
And now, Emmerich feels at the end of the line when it comes to disaster movies. In fact, he had a hard time convincing himself to do 2012.
"I actually only did it because it was such an incredible idea. Then I said to myself: 'If I do it one more time, I would do it in the biggest way it could possibly be done.' So, hopefully, I have it out of my system."
But Emmerich isn't totally decisive on this point.
"I also say: Never say never!"
Personaly i enjoyed the film but a bit two faced ,there was 8 of us and well had a nice time out after the crap weeks i had but overall half of it was not on target the actuall calender of the biblical ends this year ..pause to thought
In the upcoming 2012, disaster director Roland Emmerich turns his sights on the Vatican and crumbles the Sistine Chapel into dust. But when he proposed demolishing a Muslim shrine, as well, his colleagues on the project freaked out.
"I do not want to have a fatwa on my head because of a movie!" co-writer Harald Kloser objected. And, concedes Emmerich with a sigh, "he was right."
But there were few other curbs on the 54-year-old filmmaker's destructiveness during the making of the film opening Nov. 13. By page 30 of the script, Los Angeles is destroyed by a 10.5 earthquake. Yellowstone Park is consumed by a 30-mile-wide explosion of lava. The White House - occupied by beleaguered commander in chief Danny Glover - collapses under the onslaught of a massive tidal wave, and the Eiffel Tower has toppled.
This isn't the first time the German-born filmmaker has pulverized the planet. He did it with Independence Day and again with The Day After Tomorrow. This time, he's seized on the Mayan calendar and growing public paranoia that the ending of its current cycle on Dec. 21, 2012, will bring a catastrophe of epic proportions to the planet.
And this time, even the world's most sacred symbols are not protected by divine grace.
"For example, the Sistine Chapel and the famous painting where God and Adam touch fingers. I said: 'Oh, great, we have to show how this gets destroyed.' Then we said: 'Well, we are already there, so why don't we have the church fall on people's heads?' I am against organized religion, so that is how we thought of it. The message is;Never pray in front of a big church. Pray by yourself."
Before the filmmakers are done with the destruction of Michelangelo's timeless creation, the Pope also puts in an appearance. Emmerich figures that, because the recent Angels & Demons never showed the Pontiff, he had better go one better.
"I said: 'We have to see a little bit of him. He is the chairman, after all."
With the White House, Emmerich had already demolished it once in Independence Day, and worried he wouldn't get away with it a second time - but again, screenwriter Harald Kloser prevailed.
"If you don't destroy the White House, you will be asked about it," Kloser warned him.
"I cannot destroy the White House again," Emmerich protested.
"Well, just do it another way," Kloser insisted.
Emmerich remembered visiting old warships in the Chesapeake Bay region. This gave him a solution. This time, the dirty deed is done by a massive tidal wave that smashes the aircraft carrier JFK into the White House. "JFK comes back to the White House!" Emmerich says mischievously. "I thought it was kind of clever."
This filmmaker's courtly old-world manner doesn't conceal the obvious relish with which he decimates the planet. Because Yellowstone Park plays a significant role in the film, Emmerich and other colleagues on the project - including actors John Cusack, Amanda Peet and Britain's Chiwetel Ejiofor - are chatting with news reporters in a resort hotel in the wintry Wyoming wilderness. It's an opportunity for him to make clear that, despite the frightening subject matter, he sees 2012 as essentially a popcorn movie with a mandate to entertain. And he doesn't want audiences to get too hung up on troublesome subtexts about environmental change and the pillaging of the planet.
"I don't think the film is to warn about anything, so it is not a cautionary tale. Well maybe, it's a cautionary tale, in a way: If this is going to happen, what is important in life and what is savable and how should we save things? For me, I am always a little suspicious of governments, so it is also an expression of that."
But for Emmerich, the fun factor is predominant.
"I always think movies have to be fun. If a movie is not fun, I don't want to do it."
To deliver his fun ride took Emmerich five months and more than 13 Vancouver sound stages in five different locations. In addition, British Columbia's mountain interior around Kamloops stood in for Tibet and Yellowstone. And it was in these places that Emmerich set out to fulfil his vision. "I think Roland has found a way to stick almost every natural disaster you can imagine into this film," co-producer and visual-effects supervisor Marc Weigert commented recently.
In the film, the biggest threat to the planet comes from seismic and solar convulsions, which lead to flooding of biblical proportions. It's interesting that, despite his hostility to organized religion, Emmerich does draw on the Old Testament to create a world which can only be saved by mammoth vessels that provide safety for at least a fraction of the world's living beings.
"We cannot make a movie like this and end it badly. It would be kind of sad. In a sense, this is a modern retelling of Noah's Ark. You know, in Noah's Ark, there were survivors, and if you look at the end, there is hope. That is what we wanted to convey."
Still, for all the emphasis on escapism, the filmmakers sought to give it firm underpinnings through both scientific and mythological research. For example, Emmerich and Kloser noted that every civilization on earth has a "flood" myth. "Things are going wrong, society isn't working anymore, and the planet starts over," says Kloser.
The approaching end of the Mayan calendar gave them a hook on which to end their contemporary flood story - given that millions around the world expect something earth-changing will happen on Dec. 21, 2012.
However, Emmerich also delved into scientific fact and theory in preparing the film.
"From the beginning, there was the Earth's place-displacement theory, which was big enough, in a way, to cause all this flooding," Emmerich says. "Before we started writing the script, we actually met with a professor of science at USC, and asked him how it could all unfold. He told us first that he didn't believe in the displacement theory. We asked him if he could give us some insight, and he said the only way this could work is if a molecule mutated into another kind of particle. He said from that moment, all bets are off - no scientist would say that this could not happen, because it had never happened before. That was the concept we chose."
And now, Emmerich feels at the end of the line when it comes to disaster movies. In fact, he had a hard time convincing himself to do 2012.
"I actually only did it because it was such an incredible idea. Then I said to myself: 'If I do it one more time, I would do it in the biggest way it could possibly be done.' So, hopefully, I have it out of my system."
But Emmerich isn't totally decisive on this point.
"I also say: Never say never!"
Personaly i enjoyed the film but a bit two faced ,there was 8 of us and well had a nice time out after the crap weeks i had but overall half of it was not on target the actuall calender of the biblical ends this year ..pause to thought
The Mayan calendar ends in 2012, thats a fact, not sure what "biblical calendar" you are referring to which ends this year?
Anyway, what I want to know is that which millions of people are thinking that the world will end in 2012 apart from a cluster of conspiracy theorists?!
Also, CB can you cite a reference please when cutting and pasting as some may want to see that article in its entirety and original sourcing is important.
Anyway, what I want to know is that which millions of people are thinking that the world will end in 2012 apart from a cluster of conspiracy theorists?!
Also, CB can you cite a reference please when cutting and pasting as some may want to see that article in its entirety and original sourcing is important.
Dignity comes not from control, but from understanding who you are and taking your rightful place in the world.
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CocoaButter
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http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainme ... story.htmlNew Gal wrote:The Mayan calendar ends in 2012, thats a fact, not sure what "biblical calendar" you are referring to which ends this year?
Anyway, what I want to know is that which millions of people are thinking uthat the world will end in 2012 apart from a cluster of conspiracy theorists?!
Also, CB can you cite a reference please when cutting and pasting as some may want to see that article in its entirety and original sourcing is important.
And here thought this be interesting if anyone can understand it very mathematical precise co ordinates but theres a but ???
http://www.greatdreams.com/2012.htm
All i can say personaly i believe its a new error for us i belive in Allah and he is one who says and what goes .
But then if not that way at least you get 3years of hot weather in sunny hurghada and i get another 3years with my kids live life thats my view .
Is it scary yes of course .
Days left 'til the Apocalypse: