7 replies to this topic

[Deb]

If you like your movies action packed, with shit flying everywhere, then this film is for you!

First, I would like to complain about the movie facility. We went to Hoyts in Carousel and chose to go La Premiere. This basically equated to over-priced tickets so you can sit in over-stuffed chairs and they're over-priced because you get complimentary drinks and popcorn - in teeeeeeeeny tiny little cups. I had to leave the movie three times to top up my drink in my teeny tiny cup. You also have the choice of having hot food sent to your seat, but $11.50 for wedges? Come the fuck on. Are you serious? $11.50???

Geof went for Gourmet pizza ($12.50 for four shit ass tiny slivers of average pizza) with wedges as a side dish for an additional $4.00. There were seven wedges. I shit you not.

The movie, however, was AWESOME, with major carnage being inflicted all over the place - Big ass cracks ripping apart freeways, shopping centres and hey!!! whole sections of real estate like California sliding into the ocean.

Woody Harrelson is at ground zero when Yellowstone turns into a massive volcano that goes freaken NUCLEAR when it blows and there's edge of the seat tension in some parts of the movie.

The tsunamis are TSU-FREAKEN-NAMIS, and NO ONE is safe.

The good news is you don't see all the good bits in the trailer.

It's true!!!! There are more good bits!!!

I really loved this movie. I'm going to go see this movie again. If I wasn't already married, I would marry this movie.

Go see go see go see.

Definitely NOT crap. I was tempted to put another option - Teh Awesome, but stuck with the rules.

[Frankie Pitt]

Not crap. Not at all.

If you listened to the reviews (where popcorn movies and horror flicks are generally spat upon by virtue of the fact that they exist), you'd think this movie was a big, steaming pile of monkey crap. It is very much the opposite. Oh, sure...the science is wonky (you can't stand a mile an erupting supervolcano and not, ya know, die a little bit), and script is just a handy way to link us from set piece to set piece. But wow. Wow. Watching the planet literally crumble in upon itself is both thrilling and perversely beautiful.

I managed to avoid all but the initial teaser trailer from many months ago, so I was lucky enough to be surprised by most of what I saw -- and what I saw is every horrible thing that could happen, happen. And then every ridiculous thing that could happen, happen. And there were some random people, crying and saying goodbye to each other, and some of those people die, most wonderfully. And a bunch of absolutely implausible shit goes on, and it all manages to work as long as you don't think about it. Besides, before you think about it, so other fucked up thing happens to kill thousands upon thousands of people. Fun!

What's amazing, aside from the special effects, was that the character stuff wasn't totally awful. Characters that could have been written as cliched douchebags weren't. The kids weren't annoying and show-bizzy. Everyone of any importance is constructed just well enough that you care (or cheer) when they die (if they die -- I ain't spoilin' nuthin').

At 2 hours and 40 minutes, you'd think it would be a butt-acher of a movie -- but it moves along at a decent pace. I didn't really feel the time pass. There's a solid 40 minutes of set-up, but when things start, they start quickly and dramatically. If you have to pee, wait until after Yellowstone finally explodes and the plane situation is resolved. It'll cut to the Sympathetic Black Guy telling Oliver Platt that he has to show him something (it's just a bunch of news reports). If you move, you can pee and be back in your seat before anything major happens.

The most important thing is to chill out. Don't get hung up on the science. Don't expect an Oscar-worthy script. This movie is bubblegum. Very tasty bubblegum. And see it on the big screen. DVD won't do it justice.

[Deb]

Amen, Reverend Frankie.

Sterling write up.

[Dave]

Frankie Pitt, on 23 November 2009 - 08:57 PM, said:

And see it on the big screen. DVD won't do it justice.

Okie doke. Netflix on my small TV. Check and queued.

[Dave]

This gets the ol' stink eye from me.

The sfx were great. The earth crumbling bits were great. The overall disaster stuff was great. My problem was I cared about the characters not at all. Let's look at some other Roland Emmerich disaster movies.

*Independence Day, while not a great movie, had characters that you spent time with and cared whether they lived or died. Will Smith. Will Smith's wife and kid. Jeff Goldblum and Judd Hirsch. The Data guy from Star Trek was a nice quirky supporting character. You cared when he died.

*Godzilla remake with Matthew Broderick. Not a good monster movie, but again, the Matthew Broderick character is sympathetic.

*The Day After Tomorrow. Never mind. I hated that one.

It's not that these are brilliant characters, but we at least give a crap about them because we've got to know them a little bit. In 2012, we're just given shells of characters and told to care by the musical score. They made no effort.

Crap.

Also, a big letdown for me was that the ships were just ships. I wanted generational spaceships. For some reason, that pissed me off. Double crap.

[Frankie Pitt]

I honestly think 2012 was my favorite movie of 2009. Not the best -- I'm not a crazy person; I know it's trash -- but my favorite.

Although I liked it a lot, I do agree with most of your evaluations. Except one. Godzilla was an abomination. Even if you divorce it from the source material, it is a shitty, shitty movie. One of the highlights of Godzilla: Final Wars (best Godzilla movie ever) was watching Real Godzilla kill that fake remake one. Lovely.

As for the 2012 ships, my initial thought as I was sitting in the theater, watching it, was that the ships would fill up, close their doors, and Earth would literally crumble around them, eventually leaving them floating in space, amidst a planet of now-asteroids and junk. Then they'd ignite booster rockets and fire off into space. I actually believed this was going to happen, and as illogical as it was, I'd have accepted it and loved the film all the more.

[Dave]

I agree with you that the Godzilla remake was bad, but even though it's been a while, I remember liking Matthew Broderick's character (and hating his girlfriend). Everything else: the redesign, the action scenes, godzilla babies, MSG, crap. I'd sooner watch Godzilla 1985.

[Deb]

I hated everyone when Godzilla died.

Goddamn motherfucker marines blow up everything they don't understand and I was a little bit in love with Godzilla.

Fuckers