Earlier this evening as I was leafing through October 16th’s Entertainment Weekly, I read Mark Harris’s “The Movie Trailer From Hell”, an opinion piece about the upcoming disaster flick 2012. Tossing around the recently coined moniker, “destructo-porn”, Mark Harris criticizes the 2012 trailer (and subsequently, the film’s producers) for the graphic scenes of senseless large-scale destruction, specifically the appropriation of 9/11 imagery as a tiny plane carrying John Cusack and family zips through two parallel high-rise towers just before they come crashing down and an entire city collapses in on itself and its millions of hapless civilians.

I first saw the full-length trailer for 2012 prior to a screening of District 9 in August, and again before seeing Zombieland earlier this month. Although I am a huge fan of Independence Day, having seen it 4,387 time on TV (often in July), I can’t say I’m looking forward to director Roland Emmerich’s latest big-budget vision of the End-of-Days, his last being 2004’s The Day After Tomorrow. 2012 will mark the third time Emmerich has destroyed the world in one of his films … or is it the sixth?  Does Godzilla count?

I agree with Harris’s views, and the destucto-porn trailer was a very unsettling three minutes for me, despite knowing that a Hollywood blockbuster dictates that the protagonist’s family will make it through to the end.  There may be lots of near-misses, but John Cusack and kids are gonna be fine.

I doubt New York City will survive, because in an Emmerich pic, the lovely Lady Liberty is always the first to go.  After all the years of disaster flicks, I am plenty sick of seeing my home city destroyed for $12.50 and a bag of popcorn.  Go pick on some small towns in middle America, for once! Who doesn’t want to see Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton reunited for Twister 2?

Independence Day’s aliens may have wiped out a billion people in 48 hours, but the movie is a fast-paced thrill ride with an optimistic, life-affirming message as the people of the world join forces and save humanity.   From the 2012 trailer, it’s unclear exactly what is responsible for the mass destruction, but if it’s something as inevitable as “the end of the world”, I can’t imagine that it’ll be very reaffirming for humanity.

In the end, we can’t even be sure that we are the heroes of our own movie.  We’re just as likely to be the 6 billion extras screaming in the background as our CGI world crumbles around us.  Again.

Seriously, though.  If the world ends in 2012, I’m gonna be pissed.