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2012 John Cusack
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Disaster is a well understood and typically formulaic genre. The special effects are the main draw. Audience wants realism: scary scenes that fool the brain into believing. Next the plot must could happen. Lastly, there should be a battle between the bests and worsts of human kind. These elements limit the artistic creativity; the special effects usually dwarf the rest of the budget and leave little for anything else.
2012 is a pretty good movie, considering its genre. If you enjoyed Transformer 2, you should go see this one.
Whether the ancient Mayan prediction of the end is real or not is irrelevant. We saw our world totally destroyed in front of our eyes and cliff-hang with our main characters at every turn of their misfortunes and near escapes from death.
The plot follow the old Noah’s Ark concept and has some ludicrous points: Chinese get to to construct that Arks because of their manufacturing prowess, they drove to Yellowstone, from LA, in a limo, and, lastly, what kind of engine cannot turn on because a stupid door was jammed?
I was impressed that Chinese characters spoke Tibetan, instead of Mandarin. (I cannot evaluate the authenticity.) The special effects seem more impressive in the teasers, but were still good.