When I first saw the previews for this movie I felt that it would be a typical disaster movie where a lot of things blow up, some characters endure hardships, and then life returns to normal. Typically, that seems to be how movies such as these go, think Volcano, for instance. An enjoyable movie to be sure, but nothing along the lines of The Day After Tomorrow.
What sets this movie apart from every other disaster movie I've ever seen is the ecological message it throws in your face. While I'll grant you, I've not seen too many disaster movies, this seems to be a unique sentiment in that it does it with science and I believed it. I don't recall learning any moral from Volcano except that volcanoes are bad. I take that back, from Armageddon I did learn that if you are sending a land rover drilling contraption to an asteroid you should always equip it with miniguns so you can blast your way out of the shuttle bay.
The Day After Tomorrow continually, and effectively reinforced it's message to those who are willing to listen. Before I get to that, I should give the brief plot run down. Essentially, ocean temperatures have changed due to polar ice caps melting. This causes a change in currents and ushers in three mammoth storms which will change the face of the planet. During this time, there is a fair amount of characters who must endure this event and try to survive. A paleoclimetoligist, Dr. Hall, (Dennis Quaid) is one of them and must rescue his son, Sam, (Jake Gyllenhaal) who is trapped in New York City. Geography is important in this case because he determines that the storms will render the entire northern hemisphere uninhabitable.
What I liked best about the movie was the amount of plausible science that they threw in. The plot revolves around what are legitimate facts, such as the environment we know and love today is warm due in large part to the North Atlantic current. What causes this current is said to be not fully understood, but has to do with the salt levels in the ocean and the freshwater stored at the icecaps. Melting too much of the icecaps will destabilize the saline levels and disrupt the current. Of course, this is exactly what happens in the movie.
Dr. Hall comes to realize all this and tries to inform the presidential administration of this matter but is turned away because no one believes him, obviously. I find that particular fact to be incredibly poignant given a lot of politician's views on global warming. Reference the Kyoto accords, for an example. The movie even mentions these specifically and the presidential administration refutes them saying the impact on the economy would be too strong. Enter the huge impact on the environment.
As you can see, the environmental message is pushed throughout the course of the entire movie. It's done decently subtlety though because I think most of the viewing audience will gloss over the scientific facts and political ramifications. Rather, most audiences will just thrill to the special effects and with good reason. In the special effects department, this movie is far from a disaster. From the destruction of Los Angeles to New York City being inundated by a storm surge, the special effects are both awesome and many. I think the special effects alone would be enough to make this movie watching at least once.
The special effects are strung together with a constant amount of action as well which helps the movie along. There are very few points where there isn't some sort of interesting special effect or exciting action sequence...or both. Those few points are often the character development points. This is a double edged sword because the acting was not what I would call extraordinary.
The support cast was actually decent, such as the scientists trapped in Scotland or any number of distressed citizens of the world. Where I thought the acting fell a little short was on Dennis Quaid's part. I like him as an actor though, and I think mostly the script can be blamed for that. Speaking of script, I hope it was the script that made the heroine type girl, whom Sam was in love with, suck; because boy did she ever. It seemed like every line she (Emmy Rossum) delivered hurt me. Despite this though, I wouldn't say the acting hurt the film too much.
I'd like to think that at least some people who see this movie will think about the message of it. The movie made the climate change happen quickly, over the course of a few weeks and I think that was a good thing. Most people don't think global warming will ever effect them, and it probably won't. That doesn't mean it should be ignored though. To me, the message was the most important part of the movie, and the special effects were there to drive the point home in chilling and entertaining manner. I'd hope a lot of people do see this movie because I think at least some of them will get it then.
When Global Warming Triggers The Onset Of A New Ice Age, A, Tidal Wave Engulfs Ny City, Tornadoes Flatten La & The Entire, Northern Hemisphere Begins ...More at HotMovieSale.com
In this pulse-pounding action-thriller, global warming triggers the onset of a new Ice Age. As tornadoes flatten Los Angeles, a tidal wave engulfs New...More at Buy.com
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