Once again, courtesy of German-born director Roland Emmerich, the world is coming to an end.
You have a bit of time to rack up some credit card bills and work on your golf handicap, the world doesn’t end for another 3 years.
But if you can’t wait until then, head for your nearest cinema, 2012 has already arrived.
An ancient Mayan prophecy predicts a cataclysmic event, and D-Day is 21/12/12.
And if there is one kind of day that Emmerich enjoys more than any other, it’s a D-Day.
He’s the man behind disaster flicks Independence Day and The Day after Tomorrow, and now he’s back with his latest disaster blockbuster.
Here he interprets the Mayan prophecy as a series of ever-increasing solar earthquakes, which are somehow also melting the earth’s core, and will ultimately destroy civilisation as we know it.
As you might expect, you need a tonne if visual affects and CGI to end the world, and Emmerich uses all at his disposal to do so, something he does very effectively.
He has also assembled himself a classy cast.
John Cusack (High Fidelity) is Jackson Curtis, our everyman trying to save his family from the inevitable.
Cusack is joined by the talented British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (Kinky Boots) as Dr Adrian Helmsley, the scientist with a conscience, as well as veteran Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon) as the President of the US of A. The always entertaining Oliver Platt delivers a tasty little outing as the President’s morally ambiguous lackey and we’re nicely rounded off with a nutty hippy outing from Woody Harrelson, as the talkback host who sees it all coming.
Our potentially doomed cast are certainly the highlight of a script far more doomed than the planet.
If you leave your brain at the door, and I mean LEAVE IT THERE, and grab a jumbo popcorn, this disaster movie’s CGI may entertain.
I was left willing the world to end well before it did, although I did enjoy seeing a great cast of actors doing all they could to keep the story and civilisation afloat.
Two and half stars.