The Day After Tomorrow

RATING: D

I have a higher tolerance level for typical modern disaster films than most. It's usually easy to know what to expect from them nowadays. Don't expect much in the way of a strong plot, the script is probably going to be bad too, characters could go either way, but man do those visual and special effects look astounding. 

Of course, there is a certain point where the line has to be drawn. The plot does have to be at least passable to the point where I'm not either falling asleep or where I'm not confused. And it should be thrilling throughout to one degree or another. Decent characters are actually a bit of a plus if they can come up with them (or good actors). 

Day After Tomorrow has very little to boast about, unfortunately. Director Roland Emmerich, who has a penchant for creating films more about the action and visuals than about the storyline (and he often enjoys apocalyptic scenarios, unrealistic as they are). In this particular flick, we are given a ridiculous bad-weather story where a bunch of superstorms with tornadoes and golf-ball sized hail and floods unleash havoc on the Earth in the first 40 minutes... and then we watch as all of that somehow ushers a massive global cooling scenario which somehow leads to a new ice age. 

Yeah. Basically, it's all just a bunch of mumbo jumbo. And of course, how exactly any of that can take place doesn't make a lick of sense either. 

To shed a little more light on the situation, we're given some random weather scenarios early on in the first third or so that are actually decently appealing: a massive hailstorm in Japan, a series of four tornadoes at once in Los Angeles and an insane tidal wave that essentially seals off Manhattan. And then, somehow, a bunch of hurricane-like super cells start moving about the northern hemisphere, and in the eyes of said storms, the temperature is -150 degrees Farenheit, immediately causing a massive freeze over of pretty much everything. 

A certain group of late-teens characters get stuck in New York in a public library as all of this is happening, and much of the film becomes an actually pretty slow ride as we watch people fight to survive death from cold (and many end up dying anyway--this is a high body-count film), and meanwhile, one father stops at nothing to rescue his son from the arctic tomb that Manhattan is becoming. 

Things get even more confusing at this point, if that's even possible. Various characters keep on going out into what seems to be subzero temperatures and not dying. We are told that as the "eyes of the storms" approach areas, the temperature drops 10 degrees per second (till it gets to -150 F), instantly freezing everything in sight. It's slightly confusing as to what point the lethal temperature drop is supposed to occur, and considering how long two characters in particular were out in the cold, the possibilities of survival are just flat out impossible. 

Yes, this film's story is a bunch of mumbo-jumbo and confusion. It doesn't help that the film is meant to be a politically correct pro-environmental message--which feels all the more out of place in an unrealistic/confusing disaster scenario like this. The script is pretty weak too; most of the actors are as well. Dennis Quaid was one of the few brighter marks of the film in that department. Jake Gyllenhaal wasn't very good, although that may have had more to do with the script than anything. 

The film isn't without its moments, though. There are a couple thrilling moments (namely the tornado sequence in Los Angeles), and there are some very good camera shots throughout. One in particular that stood out was a shot of a janitor stepping on the edge of what's left of a skyscraper as the camera pulls back to reveal the further damage--one of the better uses of the pullback I've seen in a while, actually. 

That being said, it's pretty sad when the high point of your film is its camera work. The feeling still cannot be shaken: Day After Tomorrow is a ridiculous and dumb pile of plot confusion and incomprehensibleness. If you're looking for a better disaster film that is less confusing (even if still implausible), try "2012" (also directed by Roland Emmerich). At least in that film, we're being thrilled and excited to the very end--something I just couldn't get with this film because I was more often laughing at how ludicrous it was (at least during the final 30 minutes, anyway). 

Bad-weather disaster films are just fine (Into the Storm is a good one), but the problem is when it doesn't make any sense. It's okay for something to be unrealistic if you at least understand what's going on, but it's not okay for a film to basically throw sense out the window and replace it with inconsistency *and* go on to contradict itself when it attempts to make sense.