After putting it off for months and months, lack of options at the video store drove me to check out Day After Tomorrow. The overall verdict? Not as bad as a I thought, but kind of silly.
The Plot
Dennis Quaid plays a Professor Jack Hall, a climatologist who is predicting that global warming will lead to a huge climate shift at some point in the future, causing a second ice age. The vice president is quite unwilling to believe his claims (despite the fact that it is snowing in India at the time of this presentation.) Unfortunately, Hall’s predictions are off by a hundred or a thousand years and the extreme weather starts immediately.
The rest of the film features tornados, blizzards, and hurricanes of massive proportions. Hall is eventually called to help save the country’s people by doing projections of the storms activities. At the same time, he must hurry to New York City in an effort to rescue his son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) who is attending an academic competition. Through the weather adventures, a little bit of romance is thrown in between Sam and Emmy, (Laura Chapman) his love interest on the academic bowl team.
The Good
Special effects are very, very good. There is something incredible and creepy about a scene where four or five huge tornados form simultaneously in Los Angelos. The flooding of New York City is also impressive, with huge waves of water covering whole streets. At one point a huge ship can be seen sailing down the streets of New York City, and the Statue of Liberty is waist high in water. The effects really get the idea across that these natural disasters are powerful and dangerous. I’m glad I watched this movie, if only to view these amazing special effects.
I think the plot was basically a good concept. We haven’t seen a natural disaster movie on such a wide scale, and the global warming discussions by the scientists all seem to make sense. It was interesting to see a violent attack on the country that did not involve, say, aliens or war. The story allows for the special effects discussed above to be used in a sensible way. It is where the plot diverges from the natural disasters and into the personal subplots that the film collapsed for me, leading us to…
The Not So Good
Many, many parts of this movie push the line of ridiculousness. While the entire plot line may be implausible, there is no need to be silly. For example, Jack Hall sets out first in a truck and then on foot to rescue his son from New York City in the midst of the blizzard. This is after he has just informed the president that everyone in the northern portion of the country must stay in their homes or be killed by the storm. This is silly on a couple of levels. First, how would Hall be able to survive if everyone else is killed simply by being outside? Second, what is he planning on doing when he gets there? His son can’t go outside without the appropriate cold weather clothing. Other ridiculous scenes include a brief encounter with angry wolves. The end of the story seems to be a bit of a cop out too, as though the script writer didn’t really know how else to tie things up. At these points I turned to my husband and said, “now that’s just silly.”
The film also suffers from weak acting and a corny script. Various types of relationships are pushed on the audience, but none seem very well developed and I found myself unable to really connect with any of them. Despite being estranged, Jack and his ex-wife Lucy (Sela Ward) are back to being in love the moment disaster strikes. The love story between Sam and Emmy is only slightly better. The moment Sam informs Emmy he joined the academic team because of her is particularly painful. Even the father/son relationship between Sam and Jack seems a bit hard to believe because it isn’t really developed enough before the storm hits.
Overall…
If you are willing to suspend disbelief you will enjoy this movie for what it is, a special effects extravaganza. The natural disasters are fabulously constructed and the concept is a good one. However, a corny script knocks what should be a great movie down to the realm of average. If you go in with low expectations (as I did) you probably won't be too disappointed.
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