OK, the first thing you need to do is check the recipe to make sure you have all the ingredients.

Let’s see.

The characters include an unlikely hero who is a unreliable father with numerous flaws, a disappointed ex-wife who still loves him, a cute little daughter, a sullen son, a stoic president, an ambitious and slimy chief of staff, a scientist with a heart, a beautiful president’s daughter, a crazy loon who sees the future, a mean foreign guy, a gold-digger trophy girlfriend and, of course, a cute animal in peril.

Now take the ingredients, mix together with a bland and predictable screenplay, really bend scientific facts, add a humongous amount of wild, unbelievable special effects, and you have yourself a disaster flick.

 Roland Emmerich’s latest spectacle, “2012,” fits the mold to a T.

As he did in “Independence Day” (1996), “Godzilla” (1998) and “The Day After Tomorrow” (2004), Emmerich has figured out a different way to destroy the world.

The events leading up to the catastrophe are quite preposterous, involving the sun, the Earth’s crust, earthquakes and tsunamis.

Although Emmerich, who co-wrote the screenplay with Harold Kloser, does not really know how to write good dialogue, he certainly knows how to put together an exciting spectacle.

 Even though “2012” is extremely overlong, it is actually entertaining. Wild and crazy as the disaster sequences are, I found myself at the edge of my seat — no matter that the science is unbelievably odd and that every character predictably fits each and every cliché imaginable.

You know from the introduction of each character who will survive and who will not; but the film still holds your interest enough to not drive you crazy. If a theatergoer enjoys this type of mindless diversion, “2012” is entertaining enough.

One of my favorite actors, John Cusack, plays the hapless father, Jackson Curtis, a not-very-successful science-fiction author. His disappointed ex-wife, Kate, is played by Amanda Peet. They are both very good in actually forming characters amid the running, screaming and terror.

Cusack in an action film? He is good in any type of film — don’t forget “Con Air.” And the beauty of having someone like Cusack in this kind of role is that he effortlessly brings a poignancy to his character. When he is allowed to act in a scene, he is honest and natural.

Danny Glover as President Thomas Wilson and his daughter, Laura (Thandie Newton), are both very good in limited roles that do not ask much from them. Oliver Platt, a wonderful actor, eats up the screen as the ambitious and evil Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser.

 But the heart and soul of the film is Chiwetel Ejiofor (“Amistad” 1997, and “American Gangster,” 2007) as Dr. Adrian Helmsley, the scientist who proves the theory that the end of the world is near. He acts on fact, but reacts with his heart during the entire crisis. Ejiofor has a lovely scene in which he talks to his father on the phone, with both knowing they will never talk again. It is a sad and touching scene, one you would not expect in an Emmerich script.

Liam James and Morgan Lily are the cute Curtis children; Zlatko Buric plays the grotesque evil industrialist Yuri Karpov; and Beatrice Rosen is his trophy girlfriend Tamara, the owner of the requisite dog in peril.

Woody Harrelson is a scream as Charlie Frost, a crazy radio show host, who lives in Yellowstone Park in a Winnebago and accurately predicts what is going to happen.

But of course, all the actors are secondary to the mayhem. Almost 500 individuals are credited for taking part in the visual effects and animation.

“2012” is way too long and as predictable as any film you will ever see, but if you have half a day to waste and can make your popcorn last for over two and a half hours, it’s not so bad.

 

“2012”  Rated: PG-13 for intense disaster sequences and some language   Running time: 158 minutes Score: C+ on the Brad-O-Meter