Is it so painful to do a little research?
Out of sheer MORBID curiosity, I looked up the movie 2012 on Wikipedia. It seems there's already a synopsis for it. I will admit this before I even go into my points: I am biased against the movie. It looks scientifically unsound from the very trailers, and I held no hopes of it making any sense. I WILL LJ cut for those who, for whatever reason, do plan to see the movie.
Okay, we all know kind of about the whole Mayan calender thing. Problem is, that's all it is: a calender. It doesn't actually say the world is gonna end, it doesn't say it's a big deal. What it says is "time to get a new calender".
Okay, starting off. First real head-desker is the San Andreas Fault causing California to fall into the ocean. No matter what anyone tells you, this will NEVER happen. Faults do not work this way. Moreover, no land mass that has been above the ocean has NEVER gone under it due to plate tectonics.
THEN, they decide to make it "REAL" by bringing up the Yellowstone Caldera. For those of you who may not know, the Yellowstone Caldera, to oversimplify, is an area of large volcanic activity, which powers the geysers of Yellowstone. The movie gets this part half-right: the volcano under Yellowstone has the potential to erupt catastrophically. The part it (most likely) gets wrong is that this is likely to happen within our lifetimes!
...you know, I could go on, but let me just hit the highlights since I'm REALLY getting bored. US gets fried and drowned, White House destroyed by USS John F Kennedy, plane flight to the Himalayas, not enough fuel, Earth's plate tectonics move Asia so far they do have enough fuel, everyone boards very obvious parallels to "Noah's Ark", dramatic tension, the waters recede and humanity rebuilds in Africa.
Ugh. What the CRAP. It has worse science than...than...I don't know, but given some more time I could come up with something! I swear, this would be MST3k bait if that weren't off the air. Here's looking forward to RiffTrax!
EDIT: Ultimately, my issue with the bad science isn't my real problem with the movie. My issue is what the marketing campaign is doing to the public at large: scaring them into thinking the world will end in 2012, and ACTUALLY HAVING A FAKE LOTTERY SITE FOR THEIR 'ARKS' THAT DON'T EXIST AND AREN'T NEEDED! I can live with bad science. Hell, I liked Stargate and Independence Day, both of which were directed by 2012's director, and neither of their science was solid. My issue is using this phony bullshit to scare people into watching the movie or worse. My concerns have even been vindicated, finding this quote from a NASA scientist: "They've created a completely fake scientific website. It looks very slick. It talks about this organisation having existed for 30 years and it consists of international scientists and business people and government officials having concluded that there is a 94 per cent chance of the Earth being destroyed in 2012 - and it's all made up, it's pure fiction. But obviously some people are treating it seriously," Dr Morrison told The Independent.
"I've even had cases of teenagers writing to me saying they are contemplating suicide because they don't want to see the world end. I think when you lie on the internet and scare children in order to make a buck, that is ethically wrong," he said. (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/relax-the-end-isnt-nigh-1804340.html)
Regardless of how the movie ITSELF is, the way they've handled their advertisement is utterly disgusting. I CANNOT approve of scaring people into seeing a movie, it's just wrong.
Okay, we all know kind of about the whole Mayan calender thing. Problem is, that's all it is: a calender. It doesn't actually say the world is gonna end, it doesn't say it's a big deal. What it says is "time to get a new calender".
Okay, starting off. First real head-desker is the San Andreas Fault causing California to fall into the ocean. No matter what anyone tells you, this will NEVER happen. Faults do not work this way. Moreover, no land mass that has been above the ocean has NEVER gone under it due to plate tectonics.
THEN, they decide to make it "REAL" by bringing up the Yellowstone Caldera. For those of you who may not know, the Yellowstone Caldera, to oversimplify, is an area of large volcanic activity, which powers the geysers of Yellowstone. The movie gets this part half-right: the volcano under Yellowstone has the potential to erupt catastrophically. The part it (most likely) gets wrong is that this is likely to happen within our lifetimes!
...you know, I could go on, but let me just hit the highlights since I'm REALLY getting bored. US gets fried and drowned, White House destroyed by USS John F Kennedy, plane flight to the Himalayas, not enough fuel, Earth's plate tectonics move Asia so far they do have enough fuel, everyone boards very obvious parallels to "Noah's Ark", dramatic tension, the waters recede and humanity rebuilds in Africa.
Ugh. What the CRAP. It has worse science than...than...I don't know, but given some more time I could come up with something! I swear, this would be MST3k bait if that weren't off the air. Here's looking forward to RiffTrax!
EDIT: Ultimately, my issue with the bad science isn't my real problem with the movie. My issue is what the marketing campaign is doing to the public at large: scaring them into thinking the world will end in 2012, and ACTUALLY HAVING A FAKE LOTTERY SITE FOR THEIR 'ARKS' THAT DON'T EXIST AND AREN'T NEEDED! I can live with bad science. Hell, I liked Stargate and Independence Day, both of which were directed by 2012's director, and neither of their science was solid. My issue is using this phony bullshit to scare people into watching the movie or worse. My concerns have even been vindicated, finding this quote from a NASA scientist: "They've created a completely fake scientific website. It looks very slick. It talks about this organisation having existed for 30 years and it consists of international scientists and business people and government officials having concluded that there is a 94 per cent chance of the Earth being destroyed in 2012 - and it's all made up, it's pure fiction. But obviously some people are treating it seriously," Dr Morrison told The Independent.
"I've even had cases of teenagers writing to me saying they are contemplating suicide because they don't want to see the world end. I think when you lie on the internet and scare children in order to make a buck, that is ethically wrong," he said. (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/relax-the-end-isnt-nigh-1804340.html)
Regardless of how the movie ITSELF is, the way they've handled their advertisement is utterly disgusting. I CANNOT approve of scaring people into seeing a movie, it's just wrong.