Roland Emmerich is back to destroy the world yet again because apparently, doing it in Independence Day, Godzilla, and The Day After Tomorrow simply wasn't enough. So, with 2012, he's essentially fashioned his greatest hits package. A big spectacle of a disaster film. The kind Irwin Allen used to make only with better special effects.

I suppose one question on everyone's mind is, whereas big, loud, mind numbing special effects extravaganzas go, who does it better--Roland Emmerich or Michael Bay? In terms of body of work, Bay probably wins the battle by a hair, but there is no question that 2012 is a much better film than Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Both films are painfully long, and neither picture offers up a single character worth giving a shit about, but 2012 has the edge for two reasons. Firstly, Emmerich really pulls back and allows the audience to see what's going on. When Los Angeles and Las Vegas are demolished, we see it in big sweeping master shots. Secondly, 2012 has the better cast. Again, I really didn't care about anyone in this movie, but the fact remains that I love this cast.

John Cusack is on cruise control as the everyman out to save his family from world annihilation, but he's still pretty appealing. Chiwetel Ejiofor is leaps and bounds better than the material, and he somehow manages to make his minimal dialogue completely believable. Woody Harrelson steals the show in limited screen time as a pirate radio conspiracy theorist who conveniently clues Cusack in on what's going on so he can stay one step ahead of disaster. Rounding out the all star cast are the likes of Danny Glover, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, and Amanda Peet.

2012 is relentlessly repetitious (there are several sequences in which Cusack outruns certain destruction in similar fashion, and numerous scenes in which characters manage to call their loved ones moments before they perish) and incredibly silly (watching Cusack outsmart an earthquake in a stretch limo is...well...a stretch!), but in the end, 2012 has a goofy energy about it and certainly this film offers up a fair share of awe inspiring grandeur. Had Emmerich shaved about an hour off the running time, 2012 would have been more entertaining. As it stands though, this is easily his best work since 2000's The Patriot.