Just saw the trailer for the new film “2012” that opens this weekend. Apparently, the Mayan Calendar signals the end of the world as we know it. Yeah, yeah, I’ve read the more sensible explanations as to what that December 21, 2012 date really signifies – how it’s all cyclical and the world’s not ending so much as it’s beginning again. Blah, blah, blah. Roland Emmerich can’t make a kick-ass disaster movie out of all that spiritual circle of life gobble-de-gook. He needs the world. to. end. Oddly it reminded me of scene in the middle of “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”, another disaster flick that’s been bringing in big audiences. As giant food falls from the sky a reporter notes that all the major capitals seem to be getting hit by the storm first before it spreads across the globe. So in “2012” we see the White House and St. Paul’s Cathedral crushing and being crushed, and then random other places are engulfed by the destruction. Thank goodness for the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben and the Great Wall of China. No one wants to see a meteorite hit a cornfield in Nebraska. And a lot of people are actually hoping for the destruction of the crappy little towns they left behind after high school. So you gotta go for the big stuff. If the government can’t save the Golden Gate Bridge then we all are surely doomed.
It’s all about symbols, old and new. We give them power as surely as the gods themselves. The Hollywood sign signifies a town, an industry, a dream, while the lost knowledge of an ancient civilization equals mysticism and magic. Since humans first wandered the planet we have identified symbols and then gathered them around us to protect our friends and families and to wreak havoc on our enemies. Once we gazed into a fire and imagined our futures. Now we bask in the glow of a movie screen. If we are to believe the movie industry’s interpretation of that ancient calendar, we’ll soon be gazing into campfires again. We are as cyclical as the Mayans predicted...
