2012 (2009)
Once upon a time, there was a movie called Independence Day. Everyone liked it - it was funny and thrilling and full of cool special effects. So, Roland Emmerich went on to destroy the world again in The Day After Tomorrow. Not as good as the first, but still a fun movie if you can get past the suspension of disbelief. That brought us to 10,000 BC, in which the only redeeming quality was that the male lead was hot and shirtless most of the time. Contrary to my expectations, this movie was much closer to the first two than the third. It has problems (it's super emotionally-manipulating, it has a couple scenes ripped right out of Titanic, and it features a volcano so improbable that it puts Mt. Wilshire in Volcano to shame) but overall it's a splashy, effect-driven disaster movie that doesn't try to be anything else. In fact, there are a couple of really cool shots, especially one of Hawaii engulfed in lava after each island erupts. The characters are pretty typical of Emmerich's other films, though Sasha the Russian bodyguard and Woody Harrelson steal every scene they're in. It's interesting to see which historical artifacts get saved (the Mona Lisa, Michelangelo's David) and which ones get destroyed (the Sistine Chapel, the Christ the Redeemer). And it was horrible to see my beloved Los Angeles/Santa Monica/Hollywood slide into the ocean. I may have teared up a little.
My Netflix rating: 4 stars
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