BOTTOM LINE: Director Roland Emmerich delivers his best money shots to date in this epic disaster movie about the end of the world, but there is something very undignified about what watching billions die as a piece of entertainment (as long as our heroes survive) as well as the fact that it is all completely ridiculous.

THE GOOD: The disaster flick has become Roland Emmerich’s speciality genre, and in many respects, this film follows the same template as his previous films, save only the premise of what causes the destruction. In this instance, the end of the world is caused by an unusual planetary alignment which creates the conditions for the sun to microwave the Earth from the inside out. As the core heats up, the land masses and continents become unstable, causing massive earthquakes, tsunamis and the rest. Given the sheer scale of destruction in this premise, Emmerich treats us with some of the most spectacularly rendered computer destruction you are likely to see. The first sequence where Jackson (John Cusack) escapes Los Angeles with his family is jaw-dropping, almost to the point where you can forget how ridiculous it is that they manage to escape. In respect to these sequences, 2012 delivers on its promise of cataclysmic destruction. For the most part, Emmerich has assembled a likeable cast to take us through the tour of destruction, with Chiwetel Ejiofr, Thandie Newton and Danny Glover in particular lending a noble presence in the face of such dire circumstances. 2012 is a “check your brain at the door” movie and as long as you do that, the film is somewhat enjoyable.

THE BAD: The film falls apart on many levels. First off, and this is to be expected with any of Emmerich’s films, what is presented on screen is completely ridiculous, and not just the concept. The first scene of destruction in Los Angeles, while breathtaking to watch, is still laughable when you see how Cusack manages to drive his way over the collapsing ground beneath him, just managing to stay in front of it. Unfortunately, by the time Emmerich takes us to the second wave of destruction, the whole thing becomes tired. The second destruction scene in Las Vegas is a virtual repeat of the first, but instead they have a bigger plane to escape in. Ironically however, the ridiculousness of what we are watching is not the film’s main fault. Unlike Emmerich’s previous films which had a noble, if very clichéd, core to their characters, 2012 is built upon a foundation of cynicism and undignified behaviour, along with the clichés. Rather than tell the people of the world what will happen when scientists discover the coming apocalypse, governments conspire to keep it a big secret and kill everyone that threatens to expose it. People with the biggest cheque books can buy tickets on the arks that will house those worth saving. And if all of that were not enough, in each sequence where there is massive destruction, we actually see people falling out of skyscrapers, burnt alive by molten lava, drowned by tidal forces and consumed by ash clouds; but the music hits the crescendo as soon as our likeable cast manage to escape, and that is okay right? After all, as long as they survive, who cares about the billions dying below them? The cast suffer from this problem as well, with John Cusack copping the brunt of it with one of the most bored and uninspired performances he has given in his career. The subplot with the rich Russian is deplorable, and the clichéd Carl Anhauser (Oliver Platt) character as the guy who inherits the US government when the President stays behind is despicable to watch. As all of these ideas and character form the spine for this film, it is hard to see it as an enjoyable piece of entertainment, no matter how spectacular the money shots are.