2012 (2009)

All Critics (238) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (94) | Rotten (144) | DVD (4)

Cusack, with his one-of-the-guys face and his nice way with child actors, does creditable work as an Average American Dad trying to put things right.

September 7, 2011 Full Review

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Entertainment Weekly

Top Critic

2012 is the rare case of a bad film that I'm nevertheless obliged to recommend you see.

May 6, 2011 Full Review

Laremy Legel

Film.com

Top Critic

2012 is reminiscent of yesteryear '80s shlock-tastic blockbusters -- total popcorn entertainment with ridiculous dialogue and impossible situations and special effects that will boggle the brain for a good two-plus hours.

December 7, 2009 Full Review | Comments (2)

Sara Vilkomerson

New York Observer

Top Critic

The worst sins of dialogue are visited upon the wonderfully soulful Chiwetel Ejiofor, who has to remind creepy government types that those massive high-tech arks are for all of us, not just the rich and powerful.

November 18, 2009 Full Review

Joshua Rothkopf

Time Out New York

Top Critic

Even though this movie's running time of two and a half hours is about one hour too long, there's still some pretty cool disaster stuff on the way.

November 16, 2009 Full Review | Comments (7)

A.O. Scott

At the Movies

Top Critic

2012 is so long, and its special effects are at once so outrageous and so thunderously predictable, that by the time I lurched from the theatre I felt that three years had actually passed and that the apocalypse was due any second.

November 16, 2009 Full Review | Comments (8)

Anthony Lane

New Yorker

Top Critic

Emmerich favours hoisting his camera high and dry to give audiences the best panoramic view, but it removes all tension from proceedings - you're always at a safe distance.

September 29, 2012 Full Review

Ali Gray

TheShiznit.co.uk

Two and a half hours of heaving and cleaving and crashing and crunching.

September 30, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Neil Pond

American Profile

Most of all, I liked the airlifting of giraffes to ark safety via helicopter and the bizarrely unreasonable cheeriness of the beleaguered survivors who all but shout "hip-hip-hooray" after billions of other Earth citizens lose their lives.

April 4, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Dave White

Movies.com

Over the top scenes of destruction aside 2012 is generally unimaginative in every way, from conception to execution. It's not particularly bad, but never has the end of the world seemed so quaint.

March 3, 2011 Full Review

Joshua Starnes

ComingSoon.net

At points, 2012 was tedious enough to make us feel like we were in the theater until 2012

September 28, 2010 Full Review | Comments (2)

Kamal 'The Diva' Larsuel

3BlackChicks Review

A headache inducing mess of apocalyptic proportions, 2012 is a woeful greatest hits package of disaster film clichés, mixed with shallow social commentary.

August 20, 2010 Full Review

Matthew Pejkovic

Matt's Movie Reviews

In line with the U.S.-centric heartbeat of 2012, most other nationalities, particularly the Russians, are viewed as imbeciles and/or mere extensions of crude stereotypes - clever Indians, honourable Chinese, stylish Italians, and so on.

August 9, 2010 Full Review | Comments (3)

Simon Foster

sbs.com.au

You don't have to say more than "it's a Roland Emmerich film" to get the full brunt of the quality of the production. Great visuals, but weak dialogue and scenarios.

July 8, 2010 Full Review | Comments (3)

Wesley Lovell

Cinema Sight

It's cinematic waterboarding and there was more than one occasion during the film when I was convinced it was never going to end.

June 2, 2010 Full Review

Brian Orndorf

BrianOrndorf.com

I can't claim to have seen every terrible film in cinematic history, but in my fairly extensive watchography, 2012 is certainly in the top 5 worst ever.

April 15, 2010 Full Review | Comments (7)

Sam Bathe

Fan The Fire

Action-packed entertainment builds around efforts, not to prevent the destruction of the planet, but to plan for the continuation of the human race.

March 25, 2010 Full Review

Annlee Ellingson

Moving Pictures Magazine

It's the end of the world as we know it%u2026 again! But hand it to Roland Emmerich, an old hand at cinematic Armageddon, for making the apocalypse such an entertaining ride.

March 25, 2010 Full Review | Comment (1)

Sean Axmaker

Seanax.com

• 1. Harry Helmsley: I barely see my boy, but at least we talk.
  2. Tony Delgado: About what?
  3. Harry Helmsley: Life, and how short it is.
  – Submitted by Matthew D (5 months ago)
• 1. President Wilson: I'm coming home, Dorothy.
  – Submitted by Matthew D (5 months ago)
• 1. Jackson Curtis: Kate, California is going down! Pack up the kids, now!
  2. Kate Curtis: They just got back. God you sound like a crazy person, the Governor says we're fine now.
  3. Jackson Curtis: That guy is an actor, he's reading a script! When the tell you not to panic, that's when you run!
  – Submitted by Matthew D (5 months ago)
• 1. President Wilson: Today, none of us are strangers. Today, we are one family, stepping into the darkness together. We are a nation of many religion, but I believe these words reflect the spirit of all our faiths. The Lord is my Shepard...
  – Submitted by Typhon Q (8 months ago)
• 1. Kate Curtis: Well, now that you got your map where are we going?
  2. Jackson Curtis: [opens up the map up to find it only has China on it] We're gonna need a bigger plane.
  – Submitted by Miles F (8 months ago)
• 1. Yuri Karpov: What is that?
  2. Sasha: The state of Hawaii.
  3. Yuri Karpov: Not good. That is not good.
  4. Jackson Curtis: How much fuel do we have?
  5. Sasha: Not much, We'll have make an emergency landing somewhere in South China Sea.
  6. Gordon: Great. At least we don't need the landing gear.
  7. Jackson Curtis: What happened to it?
  8. Gordon: Well, we've lost it all, in Vegas.
  – Submitted by Matthew D (9 months ago)