First he let aliens blow up the white house, Godzilla damage New York, then he froze the world. This time Roland Emmerich simply sends the whole planet to hell.

It takes 30 minutes to set up the premise and the characters, thankfully without digging too deeply into Mayan prophecies. After that, all hell breaks loose, slowly but more impressive with every minute. Which forces the audience to make a decision: suspend disbelief and have fun with the impressive display of destruction (as much fun as millions dying can be) or take the cynic stance how this and that is simply not realistic at all.

The pace is breathless, only occasionally slowed by the expected emotional conversations, most of which do neither show a great sense for dialogue nor do they make you cringe in embarrassment. A few minor characters are not more than cardboards, but John Cusack performs convincingly and his character makes for a decent hero for the film. However, the conscience and beating heart of the movie is the always wonderful Chiwetel Ejiafor ("Serenity", "Children of men" ), who pretty much steals every scene he is in.

The last section of the film takes a more science-fiction oriented direction, with the ark project and the idea of how humanity would make sure not to get extinct after a global catastrophe, raising questions of morality on the way. That doesn't stop the movie from delivering a fast, exciting and breathtaking showdown, again, if you decide to let it get to you.

In the end everyone has to decide on their own how they feel about this. The effects are top notch, the story neither as bad as feared, nor as great as it could be. The result is exciting popcorn entertainment, no more but also no less.

7 out of 10 flying subway cars.