Why does The Apocalypse take up such a massive part of popular culture? It seem like at any given time at least one hit movie is apocalyptic, World War Z being the current one. Personally, I have always hoped that it is because deep down people are sickened by the overwhelming monotony of capitalism.
A large portion of any modern Apocalypse movie is the imagined destruction of everything that is culturally familiar. In early apocalypse movies this usually meant the destruction or abandon of iconic monuments, like the Statue of Liberty in Planet of The Apes for example.Recently, the poor victims of these Micheal Bay style explosions has changed. Today, transnational corporations are a lot more familiar to a global audience than any monument could be. The best example of this is the Time Square scene of I Am Legend. The abandonment of every McDonalds and Starbucks in Manhattan is a lot more unbelievable than the abandonment of The Statue of Liberty I guess.
This fascination for shiny shiny explosions kind of reminds me of the Ow My Balls scene in Idiocracy at times. Being treated to at least an hour of over the top CGI stuff-smashing in the horrendous movie 2012 this weekend certainly reminded me of it, especially considering it was the fifth highest grossing film of 2009.
But I like to think that really it is all a sign of a deep seated disgust at the status quo. I also hope that the popular appeal of post-Apocalyptic films reflects an inner desire for autonomy and the independence granted when all previous social relations have been destroyed and humanity has a clean slate for recreating society. If this is the case, then I can't for the Alpacalypse.
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