2012

Are you ready to rumble? There are so many CGI payoffs in Roland Emmerich's 2012 that the paisley plot pales in comparison. Another more wise acre on a blog said if you want to guarantee a successful movie either kill Jesus or kill Earth.
In 2009 a scientist deep in a mine records evidence of the sun's emissions creating a new kind of neutrino that is basically microwaving the Earth's core. In 2010 the White House chain of command has secret committees doing analysis on the potential outcome, Along the way we're introduced to a few of the ensemble cast including heavyweight politico Oliver Platt and sincere scientist Chiwetel Ejiofor. When the clock turns to 2012 we meet John Cusack, a failed novelist working as a chauffeur, his separated wife Amanda Peet, a couple of cute eyed kids, and Peet's new boyfriend, plastic surgeon Tom McCarthy. There are some other brief turns provided by President Danny Glover and his hottie daughter Thandie Newton, and a wacky Woody Harrelson (compare this to his serious turn in The Messenger), as a radio talk show celebrity who broadcasts from his RV and efficiently supplies all the surprisingly quick Mayan connections to this movie via his website. As far as polar shifts and other physical anomalies those are quickly brought up and dispensed with in an enlightening but expected manner. There's also a Russian billionaire and his creepy twin kids, plus his girlfriend and her pekingese.
Since the world leaders have had a couple of years warning they have amassed a project to construct and deploy a series of lifeboats, or arks, capable of holding thousands. Makes sense, you want to save humanity you assemble the best of the world and finance it with billion-dollar-a-ticket passage from the world's richest people.
Approximately two-and-a-half reels into the movie Emmrich throws in one of the greatest scenes in cinema history. Cusack and family haul ass in his limousine through a 10.3 earthquake and manage to both drive and then fly a plane out of the destruction. Check out the reaction shots of Cusack in particular, intercut between destruction porn and driving mayhem, wide-eyed as the ground swells and buildings and highways collapse.
Whatever you could desire of a big budget destruction epic 2012 organically delivers. That being said, there are similarities with the deconstruction of the world in this film and other Emmerich films like ID4 or Day After Tomorrow. I doubt you want to go looking into them.