Why 2012 Is Still A Terrible Movie

Good ol' Roland Emmerich (director of Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, and White House Down). You either love his movies, or you loathe 'em. His staggeringly low critical averages from RottenTomatoes and Metacritic almost put him in the same realm as the infamous Uwe Boll. All of his movies look similar in some way (almost always involving destruction of the White House), and are sure to rake in boatloads of cash whether the film's good or not. And never was this more clear with his cinematic atrocity 2012.

Everything about this movie is awful. The otherwise fine actor John Cusack is terrible (along with everyone else), the story is riddled with more holes than the moon, and it's attempt to bank off of a lame conspiracy theory is down right laughable. The film is a painful 158 minutes long and the only thing interesting is the special effects (which to the film's credit are impressive). Yet somehow this film managed to garner over $700 million dollars at the box office, obliterating its budget of $200 million. Well, four years have passed since the film's release and...it's still terrible. But now for an entirely new reason.

Imagine if in the late 1990s they made a film all about the world collapsing after Y2K (further research is needed to prove they haven't...). What if they made a film about the devil himself rising on June 6, 2006? (no, The Omen remake doesn't count) That's the glaring problem with this movie now. Granted, the terrible writing, acting, and all around storytelling doesn't help aid this problem any but nevertheless, this is a big problem. 2012 is almost an ode to how stupid we were four years ago.

This film glorifies the sheer panic, hysteria, and conspiracizing that occurred around the supposed Mayan predicted apocalypse of December 21, 2012. Well it's 2013 now. This film shows that certain human beings actually believed in that theory. Even though I never took any stock in it, I'm ashamed. I'm ashamed of the theory, I'm ashamed of the hype, and I'm ashamed of this movie.

So, this is why 2012 is still a terrible movie. Do you like this movie? If so, tell the Doctor why. I'm genuinely interested. But for me, I still can't overlook the catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions this movie is. That is my diagnosis.