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Hoping to see the end of the world

E-mail|Link|Comments () November 13, 2009 02:31 PM

Columbia Pictures/Sony

How the world ends, according to the movie "2012"

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

On Boston Common this afternoon, dead leaves skittered across the paths and lawns, blown by a cold breeze that was the harbinger, the radio said, of an unpleasant storm tonight. The sun, a white wafer, vainly sought to pierce the clouds.

It was a perfect day, in other words, to consider the prospect of the end of the world.

And inside a theater at the edge of the park, the movie "2012" was drawing a steady trickle of moviegoers who wondered how the new big-budget blockbuster would portray the ultimate cataclysm.

"I'm curious to see how people predict the end of the world to be," said Nelly Liu, 23, a public relations major from Boston University, whose classes were over for the week. "It's going to be a good reflection of the world, like, if we don't stop global warming, maybe one day there will be the end of the world."

"I'm excited to see how someone else thinks it's going to end," said Omar Young, 36, a tourist from Flint, Mich., who said he just got tired of walking in the cold wind and stopped into the Loews Boston Common to while away the afternoon.

"It will be interesting to see," said Hugh Nguyen, 23, of Quincy, a fashion major at Fisher College, who also was free from classes for the week. He said he expected that if the world really ends, it will have more to do with nuclear weapons and a third world war.

Rich LaBlue, 38, of Malden took the day off from work because a friend was in from out of town. He said he thought it was a fine way to spend a gloomy afternoon.

"Two-and-a-half hours, great special effects, cheesy dialogue – it should do the trick," he said, adding that he expected director Roland Emmerich to do a decent job with the film, which opened today, with some theaters screening it first at 12:01 a.m.

He said he thought the idea that the world would end in 2012 was "interesting, kind of urban legend stuff."

But another man who was rushing to catch the beginning of the film and didn't stop to give his name had a different opinion.

"I know it's coming," he said as he headed up to the theater.