I think it is safe to say that I was moderately ready for another end of the world disaster flick to come along.  I am always one to enjoy the sights and sounds of the world as it comes to an end in a creative and horrific way.  However...once. ..just once, I would like it to come at the hands from someone other than Roland Emmerich.

  Now, this isn't to say that 2012 is a terrible movie, but it is definitely a Roland Emmerich movie.  While the "Emmerich Forumla" passed with flying colors back in 1996 when I was awestruck as a teen watching Independence Day, it is slowly becoming less and less of a thrill for me.  End of the world epics are supposed to send me to another place, where I am rooting for humanity to survive as they hang on by a thread.  I am supposed to feel the pain and realize that it just may actually suck if this should ever happen for real.  Yet as the technology gets better and the set pieces that are destroyed are bigger and bigger, I find myself rooting less and less for humanity and more for the enemies.

  The effects are, as you would expect, awesome.  There were several scenes that actually had me wide eyed as I witnessed the spectacle taking place before me.  By far the most impressive effect in the film was the eruption of the super volcano hiding in the depths of Yellowstone National Park.  Not to be over done by musical crescendos, the director chose to leave it as is and let his (or his digital team's) talents do all the talking.  It was the kind of effect that you actually believe would be really close to its real life counterpart.  Simply awesome.

  All the awesome effects in the world still do not send me back in time to when digital effects in a movie were all that mattered.  Once again Mr. Emmerich has a whol'lot of characters and not nearly enough time to develop any of them in any reasonable manner.  Once again Roland has plopped down a semi-dysfunctional family smack dab into the middle of the situation on hand, only to inevitably survive.  In all honesty, it needs to stop.  My plea to him is to kill a family member for once.  That, or give us some gritty real life situations they need to overcome that we can relate to.  An ex-wife reaching out from a moving plane while her ex-husband tries to catch up, while the runway is collapsing beneath him, is simply nothing that the audience can emotionally connect with.  Let's for once, have a family tragedy where they are at the forefront of the story and the epic disaster is a backdrop that never tries to overpower the human element.

  2012 has its place, which is with a certain audience that I once connected with.  I've long since departed from this group in search of a more emotional connection with my destruction.  The hard part about it is that it hasn't been on an epic world scale like Roland tries to provide.  Alas, I am caught in this middle-earth until someone steps up to the plate to replace Emmerich as the king of disaster.  That or until Roland Emmerich decides to make us care.

  It is time for someone in Emmerich's camp to slap some sense into him.  Effects-driven films are SO 20th century.  Audiences have grown immune to these types of films and desire something more...something they can connect with.  You have it in you Roland.  Let it come out.  There is no doubt that somewhere in you is the greatest epic movie the world has ever seen.