Roland Emmerich
2012

THE REVIEW

The pattern is always the same: micro-history within macro-history, a series of "video game" rescues, all strictly at the last second, tearful and hopeful ending.

This is how he made all his previous big films, and so, consistently, he made this one.

Once the pattern is exposed, with a smug "you can't fool us" attitude, let's explain why, in the end, we actually liked this absurd big film.

Well... liked... let's be clear...: liked the way you might enjoy going to Gardaland compared to the Dolomites, or how we liked the U2 megatour compared to Jarrett's solo piano at La Scala. So...: we liked it with the due caveat.

First of all, I liked it, just as I like - from the famous Indiana Jones scene with the raft cheerfully descending from the airplane, passenger-laden...- all films deemed "impossible" by the female audience.

Here the most lavish cinematic nonsense that the human mind can recall follows one after another without brakes or dignity... and everything is so splendidly over-the-top that it inevitably borders on the sublime.

Of course, the final half-hour with the tearful semi-happy ending has moments of absolute unsustainability. Just as the usual American moral of "we were wrong to separate..." is unsustainable. Unsustainable and hypocritical, especially if it comes from a system that has made divorce one of its strengths of reckless dynamism (whether you like it or not, it's true, unless you question the golden principle that it's the pussy that makes the world go round).

That said, we cannot deny that the special effects, this time, are truly impressive, and for those who love to get scared like me, it's all a delightful bonus.

Some scenes, in particular, are truly terrifying, despite their tacky implausibility.

But in the end, it doesn't matter..: it's a giant carousel ride, and what matters, in rides, is having fun.

And forgive a microscopic and completely useless personal note: Amanda Peet is the most beautiful woman in the universe.