The Day After Tomorrow

As far as disaster films go this is good one. Global warming has finally decided to rear its ugly head and starts another ice age for the northern half of the world. Of course this means the focus of the film is on New York so it can freeze icons like the statue of liberty and the Hollywood sign can be destroyed in Los Angeles. There is a formula for the end of the world narratives that almost every film has to have which makes it hard to do well since things are just repeating themselves. For example the homeless black guy with a dog. Armageddon anyone? Stupid politicians, smart scientist, the ordinary people trapped and of course the love story.

The casting was perfect. I mean I could watch Dennis Quaid in just about anything but this is also a great one for Jake Gyllenhaal still at the beginning of his career where he can still be believable as a teenager. Even the supporting cast is good. The humor in the film helps the film stand out. My favorite scene is when the librarians are bickering about which books can be burned and Brian stops them by saying they can burn all the tax law books. Now although I enjoy the film a lot there are problems with it, some plot holes and ridiculous things that I normally overlook but they seemed to standout this time around.

The beginning of the film opens with the ice shelf cracking and it just happens that it breaks off down the middle of the scientist's camp. It wouldn't have had the drama of Dennis Quaid jumping over the crack with the ice cores if it hadn't split the camp in two but at the same time what are the chances? Especially since there's a long wide angle shot that shows they're the only thing around. How do the wolves escape, but also, how does a Russian ship end up floating through New York? So, yes some of the elements are outlandish but so is the subject matter so for the most part I'm able to overlook these faults.

The disaster itself is nice a refreshing, the next ice age as opposed to volcanoes or asteroids. The topic of global warming is relevant to environmental issues being discussed now and the wave of water that engulfs New York is quite terrifying. This is especially poignant after all the recent tsunamis that have happened around the world.