Disaster Movies

I just finished watching the film 2012 for the second time. (Don't ask me why I sat through it a second time. I didn't enjoy it the first time.) It strikes me as I watch it, mulling over in my mind what a terrible film it is, that the whole concept for the movie is little more than the serial destruction of major landmarks by natural forces. The Washington Monument crumbles. The Eiffel tower crumbles. St. Peter's Bascilica crumbles. And so on. In fact, that seems to be the scheme for most disaster movies. The Day After Tomorrow cover shows the Statue of Liberty succumbing to the elements. Armageadden sees major world cities leveled to dust. There are, of course, more examples.

I wonder what the attraction is? How many times can we watch Paris, New York, and Tokyo destroyed before we get bored? I'd like to believe that what draws people to these kinds of images is some subconcious awareness of our own fragility and finitude when compared with creation. The movies are to me little subliminal theist apologies that remind people that there is something out there in whose hands we all are. And some part of us likes that reminder, or at the very least needs it.

I'm sure I'm reading too much into it, but that was my thought anyhow.