Mayan prophecies about the end of the world are having quite an influence on popular culture. The film 2012 was a kind of ultimate disaster movie with a mega budget and the best special effects that money can buy. Not exactly Citizen Kane in terms of cinematic excellence, but an enjoyable couple of hours nevertheless.
At the other end of the scale is the low budget, straight to DVD film 2012: Doomsday. This latter film was interesting to me for two reasons: it featured Mayan temples; and Tesco was selling it for only a fiver. The film, however, had some interesting quirks. In one scene the camera tracks back so much that you can see the dolly track that it’s riding on. Shredded bits of paper are used for snow special effects, which almost works until it clumps together and gets stuck on the actors. There were some strong performances from the cast, but they were let down by a script that was so weighed down by its unsubtle agenda that it kept grinding to a halt. On the plus side, it was nice and short, aided by the fact that it sort of stops rather than bothering to put in a proper ending.
So did I learn anything useful for my novel from either film? Only that I can’t use ‘2012’ in the title. I don’t really want it associated with the themes of either film. Mayan prophecies do form part of the background to my novel, but I interpret them in an entirely fresh, original and more interesting way which makes my denouement totally different to all these earthquake-laden stories.
Today’s edits in the novel went smoothly – nothing new was added, and just a few minor changes to a chapter where Matt is driven in the kombi to the Guatemalan-Belize border and spots some things along the way that disturb him. I can’t reveal what those things are, but you can rest assured they are not earthquakes, volcanoes, towering infernos or any other form of doomsday-style disaster.
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