A solar flare erupts on the sun causing it to emit energy that heats up the Earth’s core. This makes the Earth go completely nuts sending out large earth quakes, volcano eruptions and tsunamis. The story follows John Cusack who plays a divorced father. As has become the unwritten rule of Hollywood movies, there is nothing quite like an apocalyptic disaster that allows fathers to become closer with their children and earn the respect of their ex-wives.

Although the movie boasts a strong cast, the dialogue and the direction of the movie are so bad, they are actually funny. At the start of the movie two scientists, Adrian and Satnam, travel 40 km under the earth’s surface. Satnam tells Adrian that although it is quite hot down here, it is one of the cooler days. Two minutes later Satnam informs Adrian of the solar flare and states that it has become unusually hot down here. This pretty much sums up the in-consistent and largely flawed dialogue and direction of the movie. To make matters worse, the accents are terrible sound forced.

The best thing the movie has going for it are the special effects. Watching the state of California sink and the whole world destructing are quite the sight. Beauty is only skin deep though as the action sequences are again very poorly done. The earth quakes and volcano eruptions seem to always pause when they get close to John Cusack. Instead of being awe-struck of the world’s collapse, me and several others in the cinema couldn’t help but laugh at the faulty action sequences.

A Troubling Element:

One thing that bothered me about the movie was that everyone who is shown praying in the face of danger, including children, dies. There are a few religious symbols that also get destroyed in the process. But what is interesting is the manner in which these religious symbols and followers of religion are destroyed and killed. For example an earth quake causes the Sistine Chapel to crumble on top of the people shown praying in it. The director sends a crack between the fingertips of Adam and Michael Angelo’s version of God, separating the two.

As the dialogue of the movie and its direction are rather poor, I was ready to give Director, Roland Emmerich, the benefit of the doubt that perhaps something had gotten lost in translation. But after a quick Google search it was revealed that Roland Emmerich wanted to deliberately target religious symbols and is even quoted as saying that he is against organized religion. He has also mentioned in his interviews that he likes to send subversive messages in his movies.

I would not have had as much of a problem with Emmerich had he used the movie to argue against the merits of religion. However using the movie to strategically destroy religious symbols and kill off anyone that is shown to be praying is very troubling to say the least. It is an act that can deemed hateful towards a specific group of people. This is why, I can not with good conscience, recommend anything except that this movie should be avoided. 

Starring: John Cusack, Oliver Platt, Amanda Peet

Directed by: Roland Emmerich