Like a blockbuster updating of a Twilight Zone episode, only with explosions instead of all that sticky moral questioning, 2012 is ultimately only about finding new ways to topple monoliths. Only they don’t feel that new. Independence Day began a game of landmark-destroying one-upmanship. Here, Emmerich takes the competition global, but the soundtrack’s organ-rattling low-end makes a deeper impact than the film’s visuals. He already took out the White House 13 years ago, so the second time around doesn’t feel so shocking, particularly in the middle of a movie already overstuffed with go-nowhere subplots lurching toward a final act lifted from a movie that can’t be named without spoiling the plot’s one surprise. (Okay, it’s Titanic. But as the floodwaters start to rise, it wouldn’t take the prophetic skills of the ancient Mayans to figure that out.)
Source - 2012 | Film | The A.V. Club