The year is 2012 and the world has descended into social unrest and the earth itself is beset with ecological disasters. When Los Angeles is totally destroyed by earthquake and numerous other disasters strike different parts of the world, the race is on to save as many as possible and our accepted way of life. The accomplished cast including Woody Harrelson, Danny Glover, John Cusack and Thandie Newton are all mostly cannon fodder for the horrifyingly realistic visual effects, those of which are solely the reason the film exists.

Director Roland Emmerich is the new Irwin Allen, that is, master of modern disaster movies. However, unlike Allen, Emmerich has the budget and more importantly the technology at his disposable to bring his apocalyptic vision to life. Whilst I enjoy disaster movies, I feel I should mention one aspect of the film that bothers me slightly. As I mentioned earlier, the visual effects are horrifyingly real and are shown in such dense detail. One slow motion panning shot reveals people falling out of a collapsing high rise building, evoking images of September 11. It’s at times an uneasy sight, not helped by the rather sleazy, ‘disaster porn’ aspect of the film. It revels in the destruction, rather than simply offering the image to an audience.



Link: TweakTown