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There's a calamity far greater than the disintegration of the Earth's core that dooms the film "2012." Sure, when an audience decides to watch a disaster film it usually realizes that it has to suspend belief to a degree.

But the "2012" producers ask too much of the audience.

Its star, John Cusack, plays a character who can apparently survive explosions and nonsensical near-death experiences while better trained characters all die around him. It isn't long before the only thing that truly dies in this disaster film is suspense.

It's no fun sitting through a movie where no matter what happens, from outrunning a meteor shower in a RV to piloting a plane through collapsing skyscrapers, there's never any sense of danger to the stars. That may be fine for a secret agent or trained police officer, but for a regular guy to overcome such impossible odds comes across as ridiculously far-fetched.

Cusack ("Igor") stars as Jackson Curtis, a part-time novelist and limo driver based in San Francisco. While trying to develop his writing career, his marriage to Kate (Amanda Peet, "Martian Child") ended and she's moved on with a plastic surgeon that his two children think is the greatest.

Just in time a world-ending calamity occurs to remind Jackson and Kate how much they truly love each other. During a camping trip with his children, Jackson meets an unhinged man (Woody Harrelson, "Zombieland") who thinks he's uncovered a conspiracy that the government is withholding information on this global calamity.

The film is based on the legends surrounding the end of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by the Mayans, scheduled to end in December 2012. Some fiction writers have used the end of the 5,125 year calendar to suggest it may bring about the end of the world.

Geologist Adrian (Chiwetel Ejiofor, "American Gangster") has discovered that the Earth's core is unstable. With a timeframe of three years to act, the world's leaders begin enacting a series of preparations to preserve some measure of human life before all is lost to earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters.

Ejiofor has the meatier role as Adrian is apparently the sole expert on the planet catastrophe and flies throughout the U.S. updating the president (Danny Glover, "Night Train") on the best choice of action.

Adrian argues that the American public should know about the imminent destruction while his superior, Carl (Oliver Platt, "Year One"), wants to make sure all essential personnel including government employees, doctors and others based on their genetic stock determined necessary to maintain the human race escape to 21st century cruiser arks designed to survive the floods before alerting everyone.

That's a fairly intriguing plot and one that would have sufficed for most disaster movies, but director/co-screenwriter Roland Emmerich ("The Day After Tomorrow") shoehorns the story of Jackson's family as their travels take them to Las Vegas and China trying to get onto one of the arks to give some measure of the common man's perspective.

So while thousands plummet from skyscrapers, get sucked into the ground or wiped out by tidal waves, Emmerich tries to manipulate the audience into only caring if Jackson and his family survive.

Emmerich and fellow co-screenwriter, Harald Kloser ("10,000 B.C."), hammer the audience with silly conveniences and ironic dialogue. One example of this is when one character says he feels like the ground is coming out from under his relationship, and the ground does indeed crack open.

Emmerich and Kloser's script is filled with uncanny coincidences, such as a chance encounter with Jackson and Adrian or a rude business tycoon punching out the same guy who will have a pivotal role in his family's survival. It's all a bit too convenient and comes across more as trite than serendipitous.

If nothing else Emmerich's tremendous scenes of mass destruction of famous landmarks, such as the White House, are truly mind boggling, but their use is questionable. One can debate the entertainment value of watching millions die when the news is filled with stories of real disasters killing thousands.

2012

PG-13; Action; 158 minutes

Director: Roland Emmerich

Cast: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Oliver Platt, Thomas McCarthy, Woody Harrelson, Liam James, Morgan Lily and Danny Glover

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars