happy chatter

I'm not much of a blockbuster movie type, but Frank is. Which is kind of funny, because when he first asked me out, he wrote a letter suggesting we go see 'Minority Report'. He thought it might be a good movie since it was in the same genre as 'The Matrix'. I'd never seen 'The Matrix', and still haven't (shocking I know), but I rather liked that he used the word 'genre', and the rest is history. If only I'd known he liked blockbusters more than sci-fi.

So I reluctantly agreed to go and see '2012' with him tonight, a decision aided by the pre-purchased tickets which greeted me on my arrival home from work. We had exactly twenty minutes from when I walked in the door until the movie commenced. It's one of the beneifts of living in a small place - we were seated five minutes before the previews started.

It wasn't too bad, as far as movies go. Certainly better than I had anticipated. Lots of biblical themes and crazy loons making strange predictions. (I had no idea 2012 was such a significant year - check out this wikipedia page to read more!) Of course, being the a rational society we are, science was called upon to back up the strange predictions, and things began to go rather pear shaped for the global village. And throughout it all the warm, fuzzy human interest factor.

There were some interesting themes, like love, selfishness, cruelty, and the nature of humanity, with a few points of interesting social commentary. I mean, why were the Americans the last country to respond with compassion? And do we as a society sell tickets to comfort and safety, before opening our hearts to the desperately needy?

At the risk of drawing too deep conclusions from what is little more than a formulaic blockbuster, I have to say I like the twist at the end. I like how it turns what we know on its head. (Oh... spoiler alert. Do not read on if you don't want to know the ending) 'The day after tomorrow' does the same thing. In that movie, the citizens of the USA head down south to become aliens in warm, welcoming Mexico. In '2012', Africa is the safe haven. The few surviving citizens of the world turn their super ships for the Cape of Good Hope and all is well with the world.

I've just realised this makes the whole movie rather myopic. Africa doesn't even feature in the movie until the end. The sole survivors of planet earth are supposedly on board the three ships... yet Africa escapes relatively unharmed. Does that mean Africans don't count as people? Or they only count when we need them? Whatever it says, I like the turning of fate, where the westerners, who have exploited Africa, end up beholden to them as the only remaining habitable place on earth. Nice. They suddenly have the power. Except it's only a movie and one shouldn't read too much into movies!

Anyway, I liked it. And did you get the whole 'Noah' thing? I reckon I know a few people who wouldn't know what the arks were all about!

Six and a half out of ten, I say. Gran Torino remains the movie to beat in my books.

Labels: 2012, movie, nablopomo 09