The world ends with remarkable visual appeal in 2012, the latest film from director Roland Emmerich, the disaster auteur in charge of former blockbusters Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow.

In the film, an ancient Mayan prediction regarding the exact date of the end of the world seems to be coming true. Federal geologist Dr. Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) discovers that massive solar flares in 2009 have unleashed a barrage of neutrinos at the Earth, heating its core at an alarming rate. It seems that if the core becomes hot enough, the crust of the Earth would become unmoored, sliding around at will. Massive earthquakes and tsunamis would devour humanity, as the ground beneath us all simply gives way. Dr. Helmsley brings the impending disaster to the attention of White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt), who immediately begins preparing indestructible “arks” that can protect some 400,000 people from the end of the world and allow for the preservation of humans and animals.

2012 follows several main characters as they manage to escape the Earth’s devastation. Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is a down-on-his luck author/limo driver in Los Angeles with an estranged ex-wife (Amanda Peet) and two adorable kids (Liam James and Morgan Lily). His allotted time with the kids in Yellowstone National Park brings him in contact with Dr. Helmsley and conspiracy nutjob Charlie Frost (played brilliantly by Woody Harrelson), who opens Jackson’s eyes to impending Armageddon. But Jackson doesn’t really believe the end is near until he starts seeing the evidence back in L.A., and then the race for survival begins. Did I mention that the ex-wife’s boyfriend (Tom McCarthy) has pilot training? The plot contrivances hardly stop there.

Is the premise of the film more than a little absurd? Absolutely, and no more or less believable than a sudden-onset Ice Age or alien invasion. But look at the special effects! 2012 really ups the ante on visual spectacle in movies. The city of Los Angeles literally slides into the Pacific Ocean, as anyone who saw the preview for this film can attest. Admittedly that is the most compelling scene in the film, if for no other reason than one gets to see a recognizable American city obliterated (Washington D.C. is taken down in similarly brutal fashion later). I will not spoil other events for you. Suffice it to say the majesty and scale of the destruction in 2012 is unprecedented and not likely to be repeated, until the inevitable “Earth hurtles into the Sun” movie. Perhaps that will be released in 2013…if we are still here?...