Review of the film 2012

The film was exactly what I was expecting in terms of special effects and storyline. The director ‘Roland Emerich’ had made the films ‘Independence Day’ and ‘The Day After Tomorrow’, and his structure is always the same: present the characters with all their various dysfunctional stories; gradually build up into a special effects laden destruction of the planet; this in turn is supposedly what it takes for them to reassess the way they are and change. I guess, in a blatantly obvious way, the intention of these films is to show that we can only come together as a species when the world is in great peril. I heard a couple of sniggers (me included) in the audience when we saw that it was a black president in this film played by Danny Glover; not a racist thing, just obviously a reference to Obama. Then one of the two main protagonists was black, a scientist played by British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor. With each new film of Roland’s we are introduced to more characters, each smarter than the next, who are not white. In ‘Independence Day’ we have Will Smith as the top ace fighter pilot, then in ‘Day After Tomorrow’ there is the Arjay Smith, who points out ‘Sir, I am president of the electronics club, the math club, and the chess club. Now, if there is a bigger nerd in here, please point him out’. Finally in this film we have the black president, the top black scientist, the top Indian scientist (who saves the remaining Americans just before he dies), and finally the Chinese family who save John Cusack. One of the American’s also points out something along the lines of ‘I didn’t think we could get the ships built so fast, well that’s the Chinese for you’. Besides John Cusack’s character, the only other white person of note is Oliver Platt’s selfish politician; a role regularly filled now by white men. I will say that even though Hollywood may be casting much better roles for black and Asian male actors, they seem to have trouble picking roles in which there is a black woman in an important role. Yes we have the likes of Halle Berry, and in this film Thandie Newton, but they are lighter skinned from a mixed race background. Anyway, all I will say is that this film is a decent enough watch, but just be prepared to suspend your disbelief, in fact, just through it out of the window before you go.