The Day After Tomorrow

If global warming were as unlikely a notion as an alien invasion, a movie like The Day After Tomorrow would be discussed more for its destructive action sequences (tornadoes flatten Las Angeles, tidal wave floods New York) than for its political statements. But due to mounting controversy over how our government has been handling the global warming threat – an issue touched on in Emmerich’s film - many have commented on how much more the film means now then it did when the script was first concieved. But enough has been said on the subject, and plenty more will be said in the future, so for the time being I am going to focus my (very late) review on the film itself and not what it says about our current way of life.

The inspiration for the film originated from a book, The Coming Global Superstorm, that Roland Emmerich found in a library while working on another movie, and from which he took the basic ideas and created a movie. No doubt he put the more serious issues of the book aside, in order to create what we all know he's really good at - a disaster movie. And thankfully, as a disaster movie, The Day After Tomorrow is far from a disaster - in fact, it's a lot of fun.

One of the things that originally attracted me to the film, apart from the ultra-cool trailers, was the cast - made up of fantastic emerging talent Jake Gyllenhaal, veteran actor (and recently robbed of an Oscar nomination for Far From Heaven) Dennis Quaid, and even Emmy Rossum, the love-interest for Gyllenhaal's Sam. They all do not disappoint, and their performances often improve the more boring 'emotional' scenes of the film.



Sadly, the advertising for the film was misleading - there are no scenes in London, or Sydney, or Paris - in fact there are only two major destructive sequences throughout the movie, which is predictable but a big-let down. But at least those two are truly exhilirating, and impossible to fault visual-effects wise. Only problem is, the rest of the film can't live up to the standards set by Emmerich's last big disaster film, Indepence Day, and by those two sequences that had been so overhyped everyone seemed to forget about the other two hours of the film. Emmerich tries to make the talky scenes interesting, but despite some moments of good comedy, he fails.

Plot holes, inconsistencies and sheer silliness also mar the film's credibility - which wouldn't matter if it was a straight action blockbuster, but Emmerich really wants you to care about the character's and the situations they are in, which is impossible if you can't take the film seriously, even in the slightest.

Ultimately, despite some fun action and a few suprises along the way, The Day After Tomorrow fails as a film - though it does succed as a spectacle. Welcome back, Emmerich, now get out of our sight.

*** / *****.