The End Is Coming... Finally!

Okay, I have a confession to make. In my good friend David's blog, I commented that I would completely and totally ignore the movie 2012. And I was doing a fairly good job until I was ambushed by some friends and forced to watch the film. Yes, I confess... I watched 2012. HOWEVER, I didn't pay a single, solitary dime to watch it. That movie made NO MONEY off me!

*whew* I feel better. It's like a giant weight has been lifted off my chest!

Here's the surprising thing though, there were a couple of parts of the movie that weren't total crap! I know, I know, it was a shock to me too! I think that at some point during the production, Emmerich went to get a cup of coffee and some one took the opportunity to insert some quality to make the movie bearable to people like me who were forced to watch it.

Given all the hype the movie got, I'm not going to go over the plot. Suffice it to say, the year 2012 pops up & the world as we know it gets destroyed. But here's where it gets interesting, throughout the budget swelling special effects extravaganza of global destruction, there were about 3-4 scenes with two characters, the idealistic scientist Adrian Helmsley (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) and the pragmatic politician Carl Anheuser (played by Oliver Platt). In these scenes, the movie delivers tiny nuggets of powerful philosophizing as these two characters debate several points of policy made relevant by the impending destruction of the world.

For example: keeping the impending doom of the world secret. Does keeping the world from biblical levels of anarchy & chaos due to global panic warrant the cold blooded murder of anyone threatening to release information to the public?

Another example: should we give up our beliefs and principles in order to insure our survival?

The scenes are short and to the point, since Emmerich wants to spend the bulk of the movie's 158 min runtime on death, explosions, and CG shots of tectonic plates shifting continents around, but that just makes them all the more precious, like diamonds in the rough. The quick verbal battles between idealism only a huge cataclysmic event inspires & the pragmatism that necessarily grounds those principles in reality are expertly delivered by Ejiofor & Platt. And they allow for the discerning moviegoer to survive the movie with one's sanity only slightly damaged.

I still say just ignore this movie, but if you must watch it, keep an eye out for those scenes and you'll come through fine on the other side. Just remind yourself, the end (of the movie) is coming