Skip to main content

Review...'2012 the World is coming to an End'... very late but very true...

Last month of the year we got to see a Multi Million extravaganza of a Hollywood film which was supposed to be an action flick but might as well find itself a nomination in the first ever category of ‘Action turned into unintentional Comedy’ genre at the Academy Awards. The elite crowd with which I went to watch the movie was quick to trade few SOS texts but our minds were collectively programmed and brilliantly synchronized to decided that there will be more than Money’s worth if this movie is construed as a comedy, albeit an inadvertent one.

The doomsday epidemic announces it’s out-break with a massive Earth Quake followed by a tsunami & the Terminator’s California is drawn into the Pacific Ocean. The ground level protagonist steers his kin out of harms way but as the Ground is shifting, he needed the expertise of a part-time pilot in Gordon (his ex wife’s current husband) in the first escape sequence which would have been good enough to be a climax in any movie given those excellent state of the art graphic works. But if you would have watched at least 1/5th of these Hollywood flicks as any movie buffs did, it would have been easier for you to predict that the director climaxed way too soon and lost sense of direction. What you see thereafter is only a Play Station 7 version Video game played in God-Mode as the lead men navigate their families from one doomsday disaster to another. You have Volcano’s erupting, Earth Quacking, Tsunami’s inundating the left over land in a manner that all it requires is one hour for the Earth to be submerged in high seas & that’s when the movie reaches un-scalable heights when the BBC announces as part of the Breaking News that the 2012 London Olympic Games are cancelled, a chronological disarray given the fact that we are in the third quarter of December 2012 & announcement is made about games that should have by now been concluded. As the destruction spirals around the globe more attention is given to the family of the writer protagonist either paying very little heed to the intelligence of the audience or with the underlined assumption that the audience watching the movie are long considered lost in the mayhem caused by this catastrophic epidemic.

The movie also touches the 1980s America Russia Cold War discrepancies when a narrow minded Russian billionaire who doesn’t own the Chelsea Football Club is ridiculed in a way only Hollywood does showing scant respect to the existence and intelligence of other lands & cultures. Amidst all this the lead-men continues their jolly good run in the middle of the doomsday chaos & falls short of their ultimate destiny by about a few 1000 miles as their Super Jet crash lands. The director may be taking liberties from the brain-dead audience tweaks the script in such a way that the havoc created by the forces of nature displaces the actual destiny exactly to the place where the plane crash landed. After all it’s a Video game being played in God Mode and God alone has control on the forces of Nature was his cosmological premise perhaps.

You also have the presidential Elect of the United States (who has a very pretty daughter pursued with all earnestness by the scientist who prophesied the doomsday outbreak) prefers to stay back in White House to fight the inevitable and tries to boost the morale of the sinking Nation and World caused by the apocalypse thru a Television address.
The impending catastrophe doesn’t allow the Vajpayee paced Presidential address to complete because it still has a world to cover and deadlines to meet.

Once all the lead characters finally reach the mega Titanic Vessel supposedly good enough to quell the force of natural disasters, further drama ensues when the prospective Son in Law of the now late US President fights a case of humanity by urging the authorities to accommodate more people in the Vessel. He obviously does not have many takers but thanks to his emotional outburst that would have made all the life time subscribers of God Channel proud, the gates are opened for the remaining people so that a new civilization can be started on a non devastating note. Amidst all this, the Protagonist of the God Mode Video Game messes up with the gates of the huge Vessel in his endeavor to gain unauthorized entry which hinders the start of the big engine & with Mt Everest fast approaching, the end is inevitable.

In further twists and turns to the story all the Characters now considered redundant to the lives of the main characters are eliminated which also ruthlessly includes pilot Gordon who has navigated the Jumbo Russian Flight to safer snowy lands. The differences between the writer father (the protagonist) and the early teenage son are resolved by way of son helping the father out in clearing the jam so that the gates close and the Engine starts, even while their family has a drenchy reunion. Any indulgence of hormones by the reunited lead pair would have left the fate of their children submerged for good. (But I would have never doubted the director’s ability to pull another rabbit out of the hat to save the kids and the lead men in spite of any eventuality).

The immortal words by President Obama in the 2004 address were collectively called upon and echoed louder than the Digital-Dolby stereo effects by the audience not to save the World but to save themselves from this movie.

Hope in the face of Difficulty. Hope in the face of Uncertainty. Hope in the face of Adversity! The Audacity of Hope! In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to mankind, the bedrock of the entire IMAX audience belief that the ‘2012 end of the World’ does have an end if not the real World & the audience quite ironically leave the theatre in High Hopes once the credits start rolling.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review Late but true.... 3 Idiots!

My first post so nervous moments & here I go.... Having read Five Point someone, I was always worried at the idea of making a film out of that book completely starring Aamir Khan, given the youthful nature of the lead characters in the original plot. But after I saw the movie which was made with considerable amendments to the original plot and just keeping the main story intact, I was more than relieved with the thoughtful and refreshing changes that were made to the original plot. No this is not any attempt to indirectly support the VVC production house and query Chaitan Bhagat’s claims but it’s just a personal observation. But most of the good things to say about the movie unfortunately end here. Aamir Khan is of late playing roles where he is everything you want a lead role to be, confident, clear in thought, beyond materialistic pursuits of money and fame, always willing to forgive, forget and share his widespread knowledge & enlightening the lesser mortals; being spontaneo

A SOS on COC - Commodization of Cricket!

From early 2ks, ESS (EspnStar or then Star Sports) has been trying to advertise the game of cricket by glorifying the rivalry of any upcoming series.  Just that they chose to go the cinematic way of doing it than the accepted way of promoting a sporting event giving a brief history of its rivalry. Starting from LG ‘All the best, LG ki Duva’ to the 99 India Team that went to the World cup, to early 2ks, And the hope against hope, come on India, dikhado, India ko Jitado, when all we had was Sachin and ten duds to fill the 11 in those days. Badlaa (Australia V Pak) a revenge for Pak’s loss to Australia in WC-99 final. Barood (India v Aus) and Sarfarosh (Aus Pak India tri series), the campaign clearly did not yield the desired results.  Predictably, Aussies won the Badla and Barood Test series 6-0.They also won the tri series with the men in then light blue managing just one win from 8 games.  Much better was the world cup 2011, add where rope walkers from diffe

Wonder Years My Stefan and I…

The title is inspired from John Hislop’s ‘My Baba and I’. It some how made me believe that it’s the most apt way to describe the impact the visual sporting spectacle had on me during my growing years, its befitting that I write something as a tribute to him on 19th January his 44th Birthday. I first heard of Stefan Edberg in my school when a certain friend of mine was in awe of him for his style grace and elegance. In Wimbledon 1988, I was rooting for the popular choice Boris Becker, while my cousin Bunnu, went for Stefan Edberg and Edberg won and I dint appreciate Bunnu’s hi-fis and jigs. Things changed in the next year when I went for Edberg and Bunnu went for Becker and Becker won the 1989 Wimbledon crown. In the year that followed Edberg beat Becker again to make the Wimbledon Final tally between them 2-1 & am sure Becker wouldn’t mind trading his over all career record of 26-10 against Edberg to Edberg’s 2-1 at Wimbledon Finals. Then started the long story as Stefan Edberg bec