There are several movies due out sometime this summer that I want to see. The Day After Tomorrow is one of the movies I have been wanting to see. I've seen the previews several times and thought it looked interesting. I was able to see it and I did enjoy it.
Jack Hall, a climatologist, believed that the climate on earth was changing due to global warming. He spoke at a conference in India, where it was snowing, and his theories were dismissed. He took his research seriously, and over the years spent a lot time away from his wife Lucy and son Sam. His marriage fell apart, and he didn’t have a good relationship with his son. Sam was very smart. He was part of an academic team that traveled to New York City to compete in a competition. Laura and Brian were the other members of the team. Sam was interested in Laura, but he hadn’t said anything to her about how he felt.
Around the world, strange weather started to happen. Huge hail fell in Japan. Tornadoes went through Los Angeles. The temperature in the ocean started to drop. Jack believed that another ice age was starting. The Vice President dismissed Jack’s concerns again. A huge wave flooded New York City after days of non stop rain. Sam, Laura, and Brian found shelter in the public library along with many other people. Sam managed to get a call through to Jack when Lucy was there. Jack told Sam what was coming and what to do to survive. Huge storms were forming in the northern hemisphere all around the world. The new ice age was moving in much faster than Jack originally thought. Evacuations were started and Jack planned to make his way to New York City to get Sam. Lucy, a doctor, returned to the hospital to wait with a young cancer patient for an ambulance. The storms around the world continued to get worse.
CAST
Dennis Quaid - Jack Hall
Jake Gyllenhaal - Sam Hall
Emmy Rossum - Laura
Dash Mihok - Jason Evans
Jay O. Sanders - Frank Harris
Sela Ward - Lucy Hall
Austin Nichols - J.D.
Ian Holm - Terry Rapson
Roland Emmerich - Director
The Day After Tomorrow was released on May 28, 2004. The movie is just over two hours long and rated PG-13. There was a little bit of swearing in the movie, but nothing extreme. This really isn’t a movie for kids, but it could be ok for older kids to see it.
I did enjoy The Day After Tomorrow. It was an entertaining movie and I’m glad that I got to see it in the theater. It was a disaster movie. I have seen many other disaster movies over the years that I have enjoyed as well. The Day After Tomorrow was written and directed by the same man that wrote and directed Independence Day, a very successful disaster movie. The disaster in that movie was caused by aliens. The weather is the culprit in this movie. While watching, I did notice several similarities between The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day. Both movies jumped around showing different groups and how they dealt with what was going on. It has been a while since the last time I saw Independence Day, but I think there were more characters in that movie. There were men, Jack and David, who had explanations for what was going on were ignored in both movies. Jack at least did have a job dealing with the weather and climates. David’s job didn’t exactly help his credibility. David and his wife Constance were estranged like Jack and Lucy, though they didn’t have any children. New York City was destroyed, though by different things in each movie. The main characters ended up in dangerous situations. Each movie did show the President, though he was more important in Independence Day. I think that the characters in that movie were developed a bit more. There was more action in that movie as well. It did seem like Emmerich took the screenplay from Independence Day, changed the aliens to extreme weather, combined a few characters or eliminated some and changed a few other little things and then had a new movie. Disaster movies tend to have similarities in the main plots, but have had differences in sub plots and characters. With these two movies, some of the same subplots were used again and the characters seemed very familiar.
There was action in The Day After Tomorrow in the form of the extreme weather that caused death and destruction all around the world. Los Angeles was destroyed by several tornadoes. I thought they looked realistic, though I’ve never seen a tornado myself before. I have seen the aftermath a few times when some tornadoes went through near where I lived, though they didn’t do anywhere near the damage as what was done in the movie. The tornadoes that popped up in Los Angeles were huge. They did remind me of the movie Twister, though I thought that the tornadoes were done better in The Day After Tomorrow. Digital effects have been improved a lot since then. A massive tidal wave hit New York City and then the temperatures dropped so that the water froze and snow started to fall. The scenes where the wave went through the city looked very realistic. At one point later in the movie, a few characters had to deal with wolves that had escaped from the zoo. That was really the only action that wasn’t caused by some kind of extreme weather condition. The special effects were very well done. I know the tornadoes and the wave were done with effects, but they looked very believable.
There was some suspense at different times in The Day After Tomorrow. The suspense was tied to the extreme weather in some way. I never really knew what kind of weather would strike next. There were different times when something happened that put the life of at least one character in danger. Sometimes several characters ended up in danger. Some of the characters ended up in the dangerous situations because they did something stupid. I did know going into seeing the movie that extreme weather was causing all kinds of problems. I even knew from some previews some of the weather that would be showing up, but I was still surprised by some things that happened. Overall, the movie was predictable, though I didn’t expect everything that happened. There were some slower moments in the movie, but they didn’t bore me. I thought that the movie was very interesting. It was fast paced, so the two hours seemed to fly by. I looked at my watch once, not because I was bored or impatient for it to be over, but just because I wondered how far into the movie it was. I was surprised to see that it was nearing the two-hour mark at that time. There were a few things that were said or did here and there though the movie that were funny and lightened the mood a bit, but this wasn’t a funny movie.
There wasn’t anything special about the acting in The Day After Tomorrow. The actors were fine in their parts, but no one really stood out. The actors took a back seat to the special effects of the weather. I don’t think that any of the actors were as engaging as Will Smith was in Independence Day. There seemed to be a bit more character development and more for the actors to work with in that movie. All of the characters were rather flat in this movie. Some characters were barely in the movie at all. Frank and Jason worked with Jack, but that was really all that was known about them. Ian Holm was very good in his part, but it was so small, he was barely in the movie. Sela Ward had a little more screen time, but she didn’t have too much to do either. Dennis Quaid was fine as Jack, though I have seen him give better performances. I hadn’t seen Jake Gyllenhaal in anything else before, but thought he was fine in this.
CHARACTERS
Jack Hall - He was a climatologist. He traveled frequently to do research for his work, which caused trouble in his marriage and with his son. Jack knew that a climate change was coming, but he was ignored. Once things started to happen, Jack worked hard to figure out how to save the most people. He then decided it was time to be a better father and made a promise to his son that would be difficult to keep.
Sam Hall - Jack’s teenage son. Sam was very smart. He was in love with Laura, but didn’t tell her. He joined an academic team because she was on it. He wasn’t close with his father, but called him when he had a small chance to make a phone call. Sam stayed calm during everything that was going on, and even seemed to take charge.
Laura - She was the girl that Sam was in love with. She was very kind, and that kindness caused her to do something very stupid. She had no idea that Sam was interested in her. She took the competitions very seriously.
Lucy Hall - She was a doctor. She was taking care of a young cancer patient. She seemed very close to the boy. She was a caring doctor. Her marriage to Jack fell apart because of all the time he devoted to his work, but she still had feelings for him.
The Day After Tomorrow was an entertaining movie and I did enjoy it. It wasn’t the most original movie, but it is still entertaining. People who like mindless action movies or disaster movies may also like this one.
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