Movie Review: 2012

(The following may contain spoilers) Since today was the start of my 2 week vacation (Yay!), I decided to go to a movie: 2012. I pretty much knew what to expect since all the movies the director makes are pretty much the same (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow). Basically lets destroy everything we can and watch our heroes narrowly (and impossibly) escape death over and over. The movie is perfectly enjoyable. I like special effects. I like watching things get blown up. But as human drama, it is completely ridiculous. I don't really care about any of these characters, so when they say their dramatic goodbyes and express their love, I roll my eyes and wait patiently for the next explosion. The last line of the movie is pretty indicative of it all, the hero's daughter, who we learned at the beginning still wets the bed says "No more Pull-ups". That's the LAST line of the movie!!! Its great that she's overcome this, but I really don't care. And I can't care when characters who we're not supposed to like try to redeem themselves by saving someone else. Good for them, but just be good all the time and then I might care more (see Lois Lane's boyfriend in Superman Returns - you don't want him to be with Lois, but he's a good guy, so you're excited when he arrives to save them). The last portion of the movie is about getting to the "Arks" (Like Noah's) that will save a certain number of people from the pending destruction of the earth. But the inhabitants of these arks are not the kind of people I would want to start a new civilization with. The passengers were made up of politicians (they kept the knowledge of the impending destruction secret), the people they chose to come and billionaires who were able to pay for a seat (plus some Chinese laborers). I can't be happy when they survive the destruction, because the community that was going to be starting over is almost certainly going to be a nightmare. If you want to watch a movie about the destruction of (most of) mankind that has real human drama and emotion, I would recommend 1998s Deep Impact. But 2012 is perfectly fine if you've got 3 hours to kill (its long). 3/5 stars