History YMMV / RedDawn2012

* UnfortunateImplications /ValuesDissonance: [[http://i.imgur.com/vcYuy.png The movie has inspired a disturbingly large amount of racism towards Asians]]

* Tearjerker: [[spoiler:Jed and Matt's father bieng shot while they are unable to do anything. Jed's death as well]]

* MST3KMantra: How did North Korea build a device that knocked out the military of the US, when they can't build a functioning rocket in RealLife? How did they do this so universally that it got the myriad other bases the US has? How did the US's massive spy, drone, and satellite network not see a massing invasion? Where did North Korea remotely get the resources to accomplish this, considering it is one of the most impoverished nations in the world? The movie obviously relies on some pretty generous suspension of disbelief in order to justify its existence, and to some the VoodooShark handwave only makes things worse then if they had just had the military invade and take over [[NothingIsScarier with no explanation]].

** In the {{Rifftrax}} for the original ''Film/RedDawn'', the characters survey their wrecked town while the commentators say "They replaced our town with [[MotorCity Detroit]]!" Guess where the 2012 remake was filmed?

* DiscreditedMeme: The remake premise seemed even sillier than the original once you realize that the United States spends more on its military than the next fifteen biggest military spenders ''combined''. China is just one of those fifteen. Later news revealed that it was pushed ''far'' past silly, with China replaced by tiny, starving, resource-poor UsefulNotes/NorthKorea.
** The movie attempts to justify this by implementing a device that causes widespread blackouts across America. Even still, North Korea's military is radically dwarfed by America's.
*** The joke going around (started by Website.{{Cracked}} and can also be applied to the game {{Homefront}}) is that a realistic invasion by North Korean forces would start with them storming a McDonalds to get some food, since most NK citizens are malnourished.
*** Another joke going around is that half the army would defect as soon as they saw a Dairy Queen.
** Plus, nearly every piece of American military hardware is hardened against EMP, for the days back when we were worrying about mushroom clouds rising over the Fulda Gap.

* MST3KMantra: How did North Korea build a device that knocked out the military of the US, when they can't build a functioning rocket in RealLife? How did they do this so universally that it got the myriad other bases the US has? How did the US's massive spy, drone, and satellite network not see a massing invasion? Where did North Korea remotely get the resources to accomplish this, considering it is one of the most impoverished nations in the world? The movie obviously relies on some pretty generous suspension of disbelief in order to justify its existence, and to some the VoodooShark handwave only makes things worse then if they had just had the military invade and take over [[NothingIsScaryer with no explanation]].

* MST3KMantra: How did North Korea build a device that knocked out the military of the US, when they can't build a functioning rocket in RealLife? How did they do this so universally that it got the myriad other bases the US has? How did the US's massive spy, drone, and satellite network not see a massing invasion? Where did North Korea remotely get the resources to accomplish this, considering it is one of the most impoverished nations in the world? The movie obviously relies on some pretty generous suspension of disbelief in order to justify its existence, and to some the VoodooShark explanation only makes things worse.

* MST3KMantra: How did North Korea build a device that knocked out the military of the US, when they can't build a functioning rocket in RealLife? How did they do this so universally that it got the myriad other bases the US has? How did the US's massive spy, drone, and satellite network not see a massing invasion? Where did North Korea remotely get the resources to accomplish this, considering it is one of the most impoverished nations in the world? It's just a show, you should really relax.

** Plus, nearly ever piece of American military hardware is hardened against EMP, for the days back when we were worrying about mushroom clouds rising over the Fulda Gap.

* MST3KMantra: How did North Korea build a device that knocked out the military of the US? How did they do this so universally that it got the myriad other bases the US has? How did the US's massive spy, drone, and satellite network not see a massing invasion? Where did North Korea remotely get the resources to accomplish this, considering it is one of the most impoverished nations in the world? It's just a show, you should really relax.

* MST3KMantra: How did North Korea build a device that knocked out the military of the US? How did they do this so universally that it got the myriad other bases the US has? How did nobody see this coming on a global scale? Where did North Korea remotely get the resources to accomplish this, considering it is one of the most impoverished nations in the world? It's just a show, you should really relax.

* DiscreditedMeme: The remake premise seemed even sillier than the original once you realize that the United States spends more on its military than the next fifteen biggest military spenders ''combined''. China is just one of those fifteen. Later news revealed that it was pushed ''far'' past silly, with China replaced by tiny, starving, resource-poor Korea.

* HilariousInHindsight: In the {{Rifftrax}} for the original Red Dawn, the characters survey their wrecked town while the commentators say "They replaced our town with Detroit!" Guess where the 2012 remake was filmed?

* HarsherInHindsight: MGM, which already invested quite a bit in trying to get the remake released, may have a lot of explaining to do if North Korea becomes a peaceful nation in the wake of Kim Jong-il's death in 2011. Time will have to tell on that one.

* DiscreditedMeme: The remake premise also seems rather silly once you realize that the United States spends more on its military than the next fifteen biggest military spenders ''combined''. North Korea, by the way, is just ''one'' of those fifteen..

* DiscreditedMeme: The remake premise also seems rather silly once you realize that the United States spends more on its military than the next fifteen biggest military spenders ''combined''. China, by the way, is just ''one'' of those fifteen..

* DiscreditedMeme: The remake premise also seems rather silly once you realize that the United States spends more on its military than the next fifteen biggest military spenders ''combined''. China, by the way, is just ''one'' of those fifteen.
** A hasty retcon for the remake pushes it well past rather silly by having China replaced by tiny, resource-poor North Korea.
*** In all fairness, this was mostly done because the subject matter of China attacking America scared off distributors, changing the setting to North Korea was pretty much the only way to guarantee that the film would get released anytime soon. Also China isn't being removed from the film entirely, North Korea's role is just expanded.
*** One wonders how much longer North Korea can remain a credible villain especially after [[http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57413501/north-koreas-embarrassing-rocket-launch-failure-sparks-multi-nation-search-for-debris/ their recent highly-publicized satellite launch]] resulted in the rocket [[EpicFail falling apart after a minute of flight]].

*** One wonders how much longer North Korea can remain a credible villain especially after [[http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57413501/north-koreas-embarrassing-rocket-launch-failure-sparks-multi-nation-search-for-debris/ their recent highly-publicized satellite launch]] resulted in the rocket [[EpicFail falling apart after a minute of flight]].