There are several things that director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) doesn’t seem too concerned about in the bloated, CGI-laden disaster movie 2012. These include, but are not limited to:  plot, character development, plausibility, restraint, and subtlety. I kind of understand why he chooses to ignore these elements. If you get bogged down with all these pesky details, how are you supposed to focus on THE SPECTACLE?

THE SPECTACLE is the star of this film, and clearly every resource available was used to ensure that this movie looks good, everything else be damned. 2012 is a full 2 1/2 hour visual assault of CGI, destruction, chase scenes, and every natural disaster a geophysicist could possibly imagine. It’s chalk full of action movie clichés, right down to the brooding and estranged ex-husband who happens to be near his old family when disaster strikes, and must lead them to safety. Not only is the movie wholly unoriginal, but it actually feels like Emmerich just cherry-picked his favorite scenes from action movies he likes, and found a way to throw them all into a threadbare story.

This is director indulgence gone too far. The movie is an hour too long, and a few key scenes would have had far more impact if there were not an action scene thrown in every 3-4 minutes. It’s as though Emmerich is saying to the audience: “You are going to sit there in your seat, and you are going to watch the crap out of this movie.”

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Over at First Showing they’ve got the brand new trailer for director Roland Emmerich’s 2012. In this new movie, as in several of his previous films such as Independence Day and The Day after Tomorrow, Emmerich reminds us that life is precious and so are our world’s natural resources. In fact, he kinda beats us over the head with it.

In this new film, based on the theory of the Mayan calendar telling us the world will come to an end in 2012, Emerich takes his job seriously once again and shows us that not only will the earth come to an end in 2012 but also that we will not, under any circumstances, enjoy it. In fact, it will be a giant pain in the butt full of tidal waves, earthquakes and fire raining down from the sky. Awesome.

Fortunately, as he’s also done in other films, Emmerich makes the destruction of out beloved planet at least look good.  I guess that’s something, right? 2012 hits theaters and seals our fate November 13 .

Meanwhile, while you still have time, check out the trailer after the break.

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