It's the end of the world as we know it (and John Cusack is freaking out)

Some glib conjecture based on seeing a billboard and a 30-second commercial (with the sound off) for the premiering movie 2012.

The billboard claims "We were warned." The trailer features John Cusack fleeing from rampant destruction that is the end of the world, as apparently predicted by the ancient Mayans.


If the idea (which I fully concede the extent of my knowledge is an episode of Penn & Teller: Bull... I saw where they debunked the notion, and which I saw late at night and don't recall that well) is that the Mayans knew a long time ago when the world would crumble in an orgy of destruction at the hands of the universe, and the end of their calendar was alerting future civilations of that, but there was nothing that could be done about it, that doesn't strike me as a "warning"; a warning (in my mind) constitutes information that is presented to allow one to avoid danger by one's actions. If the end is, in fact, nigh, the only reasonable response seems to be making peace with it in whatever way one believes appropriate.

What I can't figure out: If the world is ending, with tremendous earthquakes and presumably all other sorts of ostensible natural disasters, to where does he think he's escaping? It's an understandable reaction to the stimulus of imminent danger, the survival instinct kicking in, but it seems like the sort of thing someone who failed to come to grips with the afterlife (or the lack thereof). It merely delaying the inevitable.

Sure, it wouldn't be much of a movie if our protagonist simply spent the entirety of the movie praying or meditating in order to reach an internal sense of serenity about the end, and then was calmly crushed under rubble, but conceivably if we were, in fact, "warned," conceivably that's what he should have been doing.

Ultimately I guess I must admit I do feel warned, but only about how I shouldn't bother with the movie. That much seems contradictory to the purpose of marketing, but hey, maybe that's how it works these days; Convince the audience the movie is so pointless that they feel compelled to see it merely to confirm that.

It certainly would be setting realistic expectations for the movie-going crowd. Which, I must admit, is a nice thing to do for people as apparently we have only a few more years left.

Oh wait. Is the movie itself the warning? Holy cow. I imagine never has something so secretly profound involved so much CGI.

And all this without me having to actually see the movie. Bravo, mediocre filmmakers. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some peace to make with something, or at least stock up on canned goods.