SOME MOVIE PLOT SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW

The movie “2012″ had a great opening this weekend. The end of the world flick directed by Roland Emmerich and starring John Cusack brought in $225 million world wide according to Reuters, positioning it as one of the highest grossing films ever.

The masses were attracted to this film either because of curiosity of what may happen on December 21, 2012 or because of the cool computer graphics that show the major cities of the world being crushed by Tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Indeed, the powerful images of seeing the coast of California being swallowed up by the Pacific after a 9.4 earthquake hits Los Angeles, and the scenes showing a super-volcano blowing up at Yellowstone National Park are quite exhilarating.

In 2012, the viewers follow John Cusack’s character as he tries to save his family from the chaos. While the whole world falls apart and the billionaires make their way to “the ships” that will save them, it’s an author and limo driver, Jackson Curtis (Cusack) who gets the sympathy of the crowd. The wealthy and the politicians that know about the impending doom and refuse to make the news public, got the boos from the audience and a few laughs as well. The casting director did a great job picking actors that really portrayed well the stereotypical vain, self-fish and greedy rich folk.

The movie also included numerous other well-known actors: Danny Glover as the President of the U.S., Woody Harrelson as a hippie and end-of-the-world theorist and radio host, and Thandie Newton as the First Daughter.

At the Vista Theater on Sunset Boulevard where I went to see 2012 on Friday night, the crowd was giggly during most of the movie. Cheers erupted with applause after Cusack is able to get his family away from Los Angeles’ tumbling skyscrapers and symbolic concrete freeways as a powerful earthquake created by “Earth crust displacement” breaks up the city into pieces. Scenes of people falling into huge cracks on the ground and hanging from the torn up buildings really excited the audience as they contemplated their own city being obliterated on the big screen. Ironically, such a catastrophe is likely to actually happen in Los Angeles since a major earthquake in the region has been overdue 150 years.

The movie is about 2 hours 40 minutes long, but the pace of the film made the time fly. There were some moments on the film that could have been shorter and others that perhaps were not necessary — these were mostly the scenes about the drama in the Oval office. Numerous humorous moments broke up the suspense, which I guess was good for those who can’t take destruction after destruction for almost 180 minutes.

There was only a brief mention of the Mayan calendar in the movie. This solar calendar, one of the most exact in the world, ends on December 21, 2012. No one has been able to figure out why the Mayans stopped counting the days after that date. Curiously enough, the Mayans were indeed able to predict the year that their civilization would end, which makes the sudden end of their calendar quite scary.

My advice: don’t wait for this movie to come on DVD, the computer graphics are too precious to miss on a TV screen. Only at a movie theater with superior sound and a pumped up audience can give you the full experience of this film. If the world is actually meant to end of 2012, then at least you would have seen the best portrayal of it by the folks in Hollywood.

You can also read Roger Ebert’s review of “2012″ where he gave the movie high ratings.

Get out of your couch and run to the cinema and watch “2012″!