End-of-world movie trailer deathmatch: Which one kicks most butt?

by John P. Meyer

What is it with the sudden glut of apocalypse movies? Should we be worried? (ANSWER: only for our entertainment-budgeted dollars.)

While watching the horrid Megafault on Syfy Saturday night (well, as much of it as I could stand, anyway) it occurred to me that there seems to be a sudden glut of end-of-the-world entertainments hitting theater screens these days, with perhaps the biggest and baddest yet to come in the next several months.

Look at what's already been released recently: Zombieland would have us believe that the whole world has been infected by a sickness that turns people (except for Woody Harrelson, Bill Murray, and a select few others) into flesh-eating monsters with bad hygiene. And in Capitalism: A Love Story, Michael Moore posits an even more terrifying reality: the free market system is broken, and it can't get up!

If that's not enough, coming up on Nov. 13 moviegoers will be treated to the überhyped release of Roland Emmerich's latest (and -- judging from the trailer -- greatest, at least in terms of special effects-driven thrills) disaster epic, 2012, in which all sorts of karma-coming-atcha doomsday scenarios appear to be playing themselves out simultaneously thanks to an alignment of celestial bodies or something. (I *KNEW* I should have bought that Mayan calendar instead of the one with the cute kitties.)

Following on the heels of 2012 comes a cinematical interpretation of Cormac McCarthy's dark, dark, extra-dark post-apocalyptic vision, The Road, set for a 25 Nov. release. Aussie director John Hillcoat (The Proposition) gets to see what he can do with Viggo Mortensen playing the guy who's taking his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee of Romulus, My Father) south across the most inhospitable of landscapes imaginable. (Judging by the McCarthy novel source material.)

Then, early next year (Jan. 15), the Hughes Brothers unleash Denzel Washington -- looking far fitter than in his last cinematic outing -- on an unsuspecting set of after-the-disaster bad guys who think they'd like to get their hands on a book he's carting around. (Think again, gents.) With Gary Oldman as the lead heavy, this one could be a keeper.

The three latest movie trailers for each of these epical end-times tales are embedded below. Vote (via comment) for the one you find most stimulating to your doomsday sensibilities.