2012 (2009) - 12A

Press Association

Cancel the London Summer Olympic Games! Our time on the third rock from the sun will come to a dramatic ...

Cancel the London Summer Olympic Games! Our time on the third rock from the sun will come to a dramatic end on December 21, 2012, when planets align as decreed by the Mayan calendar. Thus no-one is going to care a jot about whether our stadia are finished on time, or which member of the cycling team breaks an individual pursuit world record. Let's call the whole thing off, stop pouring countless billions into the event and instead channel all of that money into endless parties. If the end of days is truly upon us, we may as well go out with a bang. And that's certainly what director Roland Emmerich does in his gloriously overblown and knowingly trashy disaster epic. Having previously destroyed all the major cities during an alien invasion (Independence Day) and plunged the globe back into the Ice Age (The Day After Tomorrow), the Germany-born film-maker goes one better in 2012 by attempting to wipe out the entire human race. Every nickel and dime of, the reported $260 million (, £155m) budget is up there on the screen as he wreaks carnage on a jaw-dropping, logic-defying, grand scale. It's unabashedly silly, yet exhilarating, as Emmerich unleashes follows one dazzling special-effects sequence with another, upping the ante as he gleefully references all of the disaster movi, e cliches. Limousine driver Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is one of the heroes of the hour, joining estranged wife Kate (Amanda Peet), her new boyfriend Gordon (Tom McCarthy) and the children Noah (Liam James) and Lilly (Morgan Lily) as they flee the US West Coast. The motley crew heads for Yellowsto, ne Park in search of a conspiracy theorist (Woody Harrelson), who claims to know about a secret government plot to save mankind from disaster. Meanwhile, President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover) pushes ahead with a covert plan to build giant arks in China that will save those with the biggest wallets , from catastrophe. His daughter Laura (Thandie Newton), slippery Chief Of Staff Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt) and scientific advisor Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) join the thrill ride. 2012 is two hours and 37 minutes of pure, adrenaline-fuelled entertainment. There's nothing sophisticated or rem, otely plausible about Emmerich's apocalyptic vision: for the first special effects-laden sequence, Jackson manages to outrun a giant earthquake in his limo and even drives through a skyscraper as it collapses around the vehicle. Co-screenwriter Harald Kloser introduces a dog in distress, a greedy Ru, ssian billionaire who shot-puts his son to safety, and a glimpse of our Queen arriving at one of the arks, clutching two corgis. God bless you, Ma'am. Cusack and his co-stars constantly seem to be a smirk away from showing how much they are enjoying this big-budget extravaganza, striking a final not, e of wistful self-reflection with a rallying cry from Ejiofor's man with a conscience that leaves you feeling all warm and fuzzy.

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