If or when the world finally ends, expect the cataclysm to arrive with a sense of déjà vu.

We have seen the ultimate catastrophe happen over and over again on the silver screen, and last weekend yet another planet-chomping film arrived in theaters, Roland Emmerich’s “2012,” to dazzle us with extravagant mayhem we never thought we’d see, or survive.

Supposedly, as New Age hucksters tell us, the ancient Mayan calendar comes to an end on Dec. 21, 2012, foretelling a worldwide catastrophe that will hit on that date. If it doesn’t kill you, you’ll wish it did.

Emmerich doesn’t make much of this in his flick, however. It is mentioned in passing, but the real purpose of the film is to display computer-generated special effects, not to promote some knuckleheads’ hoary, pseudo-religious end-of-the-world nonsense.

And that is all for the best, since nobody is more embarrassed by the Mayan calendar story than the poor Maya, down in old Yucatan.