Rolland Emmerich - director of such films as Independence Day, Godzilla, 10 000 BC and The Day After Tomorrow - is the master of the gargantuan-disaster-that-wipes-out-humanity genre. His films are always painfully cliched, scientifically inaccurate, filled with stilted yet inevitably inspirational dialogue and are chocked to the brim with computer generated goodness. At his best he produces a fun and energetic summer blockbuster, and at his worse...well, like I said: 10 000 BC. Most of the time though, his movies are bland, unoffensive, mildly entertaining and utterly forgettable, and from the very brief look that the above trailer offers us into his next film, it seems as though 2012 will be another par for the course.
The title of the film is based on the Mayan prophesy that the world will come to an end in the year 2012 (thank you X-Files!) According to it's wikipedia page, "The world is devastated by a cataclysm in the year 2012, leaving survivors to struggle for their lives", which is a situation that I don't think will provide Mr Emerrich with too much diffulty. Personally I have never found "nature" to be a particuarly effective bad guy; I mean...water? I guess that's kind of threatening, right? It sure as hell beat the crap out of that little monks house.
I do have one complaint, and that is that this trailer steals the music from one of the greatest trailers of all time (see below). It's not really a huge problem, it just kind of pisses me off to see such great music used so ineffecutally. Strangely, the two films do share some similarities in terms of great waves of liquid...why don't you take a look for yourself.
It just goes to show that all the CGI in the world cannot create the same effect as a single camera shot in the hands of Stanley Kubrick.
2012 will be owning monks in Australia from November 19th.
The Shining is available on DVD, and is mandatory viewing for all human beings.
