2012 not disastrous

I firmly stand by my belief that director Roland Emmerich is currently one of the biggest hacks working in Hollywood. His laughable attempts to give his horribly written special-effects-driven movies (The Day After Tomorrow, 10,000 BC) a tone of artistic depth always leads to them coming off as pretentious.

I went into his latest attempt at a disaster film, 2012, ready to tear it apart from head to toe. Imagine my surprise when I left the theater not angry, but actually satisfied with my experience.

For the first time in his career, Emmerich has played to his strength of making destruction look like performance art.

2012 stars John Cusack as divorced limo driver Jackson Curtis. After a weekend camping trip with his emotionally-distant kids goes awry, Jackson struggles to keep his family alive long enough to reach a set of "Humanity preserving Arks", which will ensure the human race's continuity after a series of major earthquakes and tidal waves begin sinking and destroying the Earth's crust.

The plot is somewhat thin, but does strike the audience with a decent amount of emotion. Watching the destruction of society so unapologetically delivers some shockingly powerful moments and the acting, despite a few over the top moments sprinkled in between acts, is generally decent.

Special praise goes to Chiwetel Ejiofor as scientist Adrian Helmsley, the scientist who predicts the catastrophic activities that occur, for making his character act and feel more human than any of his co-stars.

However, first and foremost, 2012's true shining star is the fantastic special effects. The film wastes no time alerting the audience the destruction happening is on a global scale. Entire continents crumble and sink into the water like a drenched cookie in milk. Watching buildings and landmasses collapse like Lego blocks falling over in slow motion is just breathtaking.

The escape sequences, both airborne and land based are amazing and probably some of the most astonishing sequences I've seen this year. Best of all, the sequences come at an almost relentless pace, preventing the somewhat formulaic plot from sticking itself in the limelight.

Unfortunately one huge glaring flaw prevents 2012 from being a firm must-see in theaters; it is way too long. The movie runs at an unnecessary two and a half hours long, with plenty of scenes that could have been shorter than they were.

The last suspenseful sequence of the movie, which involves the characters traveling between two rooms, is stretched out to nearly thirty-five minutes for no reason. As much as I enjoyed the pacing of the suspense of the movie, it could have used some much better editing.

For all the negatives, I just can't bring myself to hate this movie. Even when the movie hits a slow point, I never once found myself unforgivably bored throughout the entire film.

It may be far from art, but as a fun matinee, popcorn movie, 2012 is an unexpected success as long as you know how to turn off your brain and take it for what it is worth. So congratulations Roland Emmerich, you finally made a film that does not utterly suck, but that still does not mean you're forgiven for "Godzilla."

3 1/2 stars out of 5