Disaster movies - hopeful or depressing?

I like disaster flicks. Whether it impacts one town or the whole earth - I just like'em. Many of my friends and family either find them depressing or cheesy or both. Me, I like the cheesy-good, the well-done, heck - I even like the cheesy-bad and that is because I do not find them depressing - I find them optimistic and hopeful.

I want to clarify - there are bad disaster movies (not to be confused with cheesy-bad) - but generally it has little to do with how poorly they are acted, written, directed, or filmed and more to do with how they end. They should always, always, ALWAYS end with mankind triumphing in whatever capacity over the adversity.

I watched "2012" with my mom and though she liked the movie, she always finds these movies depressing in concept. If you haven't seen this one yet - do! It's an edge of your seat exciting ride from beginning to end with spectacular special effects.

The ones done correctly - no matter whether it's the core of the earth doing something freaky or the sun is having a bad hair day, there's some horrible disease infecting everyone or it's an earthquake, hurricane, tornado, the ozone is melting, a super-collider is about to explode or a nuclear reactor is on the verge of a meltdown - end with mankind surviving. Man is always smart enough and has enough survival instincts to put aside the bigotry and narrow-minded hatred that routinely dictates, unfortunately, our daily lives and rise to the occasion of coming together despite differences and solve the problem at hand. Seems obvious to me...

I think it may have been the SyFy channel that had a disaster day a few weeks back, so naturally, I set up the DVR to record a bunch of movies. Most were cheesy and made for TV, but I still enjoyed them, but one was what I consider bad - because it did not end the way I think it should have ended. Except for the ending - I liked it. It was called Annihilation Earth with Luke Goss. I was jazzed, as usual, until the final minute (SPOILER ALERT) when the movie makers let the earth blow up - What the...!!! That is not how it's supposed to end - at the eleventh hour they're suppose to save the earth from the already horrible destruction it has suffered and man can then rebuild the world! Just my opinion - but I always want mankind to win.

With all that said - here are some disaster movies I think worthy of attention - the great - the OK - and the cheesy-good. This is a short list, and I do realize how many I have left off, but I'll go with these for now.

LOVE IT - 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, Armageddon, Titanic, Dante's Peak, Volcano, Waterworld, Twister, Outbreak, Independence Day

PRETTY GOOD - The Core, Impact, Earthquake, Daylight, Covert One: The Hades Factor, Chain Reaction, The China Syndrome, The Poseidon Adventure, Poseidon

CHEESY-GOOD - Category 6:Day of Destruction, and its sequel Category 7: The End of the World, The Towering Inferno, Tremors, Airport