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Despite the death of billions of people, the end of the world is rated PG-13.
"2012" opens in the year 2009 with solar eruptions and signs that life will end as we know it. The story is filtered through one family, headed by failed novelist Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), a couple of scientists, White House officials (including president Danny Glover) and a crazy coot (Woody Harrelson) in Yellowstone National Park.
Mr. Cusack's character stumbles into a way to possibly save his family, and they encounter calamities from one end of the planet to the other. But does anyone care about the people when there are 10.5 earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, fires, tumbling towers, ash clouds and floods of biblical proportions? The best effects are the earthquakes where the ground splits, shifts, heaves and swallows everything in its path.
Unfortunately, the whole movie seems bloodless and emotionless, not to mention humorless and bloated at 158 minutes.
The DVD comes with deleted scenes, a commentary with director Roland Emmerich and alternate ending, while the Blu-ray adds features on the Mayan calendar and the special effects.
Forty-six years after Maurice Sendak's book, director Spike Jonze could have taken the predictable path with the movie version.
Instead, he scores points for wild creativity but forfeits them for losing sight of the younger children who will want to see the movie but may be unsettled or frightened along with thrilled and challenged.
He casts a terrific newcomer named Max Records to play Max, assembles an urbane blend of voices (James Gandolfini, Catherine O'Hara and Forest Whitaker, among them), enormous puppets from Jim Henson's Creature Shop and songs by Karen O and the Kids.
With a screenplay by Mr. Jonze and Dave Eggers, the movie is as artistically rendered as Sendak's book. But no matter the noble, imaginative intentions, the movie seems to cater to baby boomers, young adults and teens who view the book with nostalgic affection -- instead of the moviegoers who listen to it nightly while wearing their footed pajamas.
The extras include a series of shorts by documentarian Lance Bangs.
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$540
