The Day After Tomorrow
Formula for The Day After Tomorrow Review = (Independence Day - the aliens) + The Perfect Storm10
The Day After Tomorrow is the ultimate in nature based apocalypse movies. Forget the many other natural doomsday movies like Armageddon, Waterworld, and Deep Impact. The three of them were terrible. Actually, I think Deep Impact and Armageddon took Gold and Silver in the movie mediocrity Olympics in 1998.
This movie explores what the world will* be like after the karma and consequence of global warming finally catches up with mankind.
*Will is relative to the eyes of the movie makers, and not very arguable in the scientific world, but more on that later.
Dennis Quaid (The Rookie) stars as a Climatologist - that's someone who studies climate - who is the preeminent expert on the coming apocalypse. He travels north during an impending ice age to rescue his son, played by Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko) who has an obligatory love interest, played by Emmy Rossum. Ok, enough drama. The real attractions for the movie are the concept, the science, the special effects, and the politics.
The Concept: Apocalypse movies are always great in theory. The earth as we know it is about to end, what could be more gripping? The problem is that too many apocalypse movies end well. The Box Office Talk review challenge to this movie and the rest of Hollywood: everyone dies. Let's see it happen. The movie is directed by blockbuster veteran Roland Emmerich who is best known for Independence Day, where sadly, Will Smith survives and the only martyr was that big idiot in a biplane.
The Science: The Day After Tomorrow, by all research of this review, is totally unrealistic. Get over it. While it is scientifically sound that global warming can cause an ice age, it could never happen so quickly, as the title would have you believe. The earth continually traverses between ice ages and interglacial periods. While another ice age is inevitable, it is very likely that greenhouse gasses and environmental abuse will bring (according to this review) a geological apocalypse closer than nature would have it.
The Special Effects: Boasting tidal waves in Manhattan, tornados in LA, hurricanes, earthquakes, and the great ice age, prepare to be dazzled with amazing special effects from The Day After Tomorrow.
The Politics: The producers claim to take the politics of global warming very seriously, so says the official movie website, which is very well designed. Go to the section 'Weather Gone Wild' then 'What Can You Do.' Other well publicized groups like ELF no doubt support the effort to control greenhouse gas emissions, while some auto makers (GM and their Hummer comes to mind) act like they could care less. The official Box Office Talk position: buy a hybrid car and support nuclear power today to keep The Day After Tomorrow a work of fiction.
The Day After Tomorrow Review Details
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy Rossum, Sela Ward
Directed by: Roland Emmerich
Release Date: 5/28/2004
MPAA Rating: R
This entry is filed in Action, Drama, Sci-Fi.« Super Size Me | King Arthur »
Buy a Hybrid? whatever stick to the movie reviews and leave your hippie politics out of it.
Posted by: tipdawg at May 28, 2004 11:14 AMThe writing in this movie was horrible. I mean truly awful. But that made it entertaining. And visually the movie is stunning. I'd say it's good for a laugh, or a cry, depending on where you live.
Posted by: at June 8, 2004 12:23 PM
