I think that this recent "obsession," if you will, with all things 2012 and alien and apocalyptic is a sense, seemingly felt by the whole world, that SOMETHING is coming. Maybe this is an unconscious response by the world --they don't know why, but they know that SOMETHING is fast approaching, and it feels like the end of the world. This suggests to me that perhaps the spiritual chess pieces are being placed for the End of Days, the game is being prepared, and the whole world is sensing that SOMETHING is afoot. The warfare is being prepared in the invisible spiritual realm, some skirmishes are already occurring (as we can see evidenced in today's events), and because we cannot fully see into the spiritual, we can only feel its effects in the "natural." As Christians, we know what the SOMETHING is, but the rest of the world as a whole only senses it in a vague way.
As Shakespeare said in "Macbeth,"
"Something wicked this way comes."
"Oir is leatsa an rioghachd, agus an cumhachd, agus a gloir, gu siorraidh, Amen." ("For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen" -- Scots Gaelic)