Movie Trailers: 2012

December 1, 2009

This coming weekend, on the 4th of December 2009, the long awaited science fiction apocalyptic disaster movie 2012 will be released in South Africa. The film is directed by Roland Emerich (who also directed Stargate, 10,000 BC, Independence Day, Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow. The films stars John Cusack (who starred in Identity, High Fidelity and other films), Amanda Peet (who starred in The Whole Nine Yards, The Whole Ten Yards, Identity and other films), Danny Glover (famous for his role in the Lethal Weapon films), Thandie Newton (who starred in Mission Impossible 2 and RocknRolla), Woody Harrelson (a veteran Hollywood actor who needs no introduction) and Oliver Patt.

Fingerprints of the Gods, a book by author Graham Hancock (a British writer and journalist) is cited as the inspiration for the film. The film’s plot is based loosely on the 2012 phenomenon. The 2012 phenomenon is a range of eschatological beliefs and proposals which predict that cataclysmic or transformative events will occur on or around the 21st of December 2012. This day is said to be the end-date of the 5,125 year long Mayan Long Count calendar (a non-repeating, vigesimal (base-20) and base-18 calendar used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya). The film was already released on the 13th of November 2009 worldwide (but not in South Africa). The film is currently the the 4th highest grossing film of 2009 worldwide and the 47th highest grossing film worldwide ever. Judging by the trailer for 2012 it seems that the CGI (Computer-generated imagery) is the main thing that is drawing audiences to the theatres. Audiences love special effects. It’s expected that the storyline will either be a little vague or it would seem that there was not as much attention paid to it (compared to the special effects). Roland Emerich has not disappointed with a disaster movie yet. Let’s hope he continues this trend with 2012. There have been mixed reviews of this movie online already and I have not linked them because I feel that they might contain spoilers. Feel free to comment on this post and provide us with your views and thoughts on 2012.

This is the trailer for 2012: