May 28, 2004

Abridged Movie Review : The Day After Tomorrow

Ok so the basic plotline is simple enough. Global Warming is triggering a very very big storm that could cause a new ice age. It's pretty much a figure out what the heck is going on and then survive it flick. Wrapped around the whole disaster plot is two intertwining stories, one following Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) a paleoclimatologist as he tries to help understand the what is happening before the disaster hits full swing and then eventually he must trek out from Washington to New York to reunite with his son who is trapped there. The other side story follows Jacks's son Sam Hall (Jake Gyllenhaal) as he is off on a trip to New York with the Scholastics team, they end up meeting up with a member of the opposing team and getting stuck with (and eventually befriending) him. There is also a budding romance story with Sam and Laura (Emmy Rossum).

This movie is Big, I mean very big the disaster scenes are just awesomely done Especially the early stuff in Cali, and the Snow stuff in N.Y. It's long too, just a couple minutes over 2 hours, you feel it by the end but you don't mind so much, there is a lot crammed into those two hours; Action, Adventure, Romance, Drama, Happyness, Sadness, Even an animal attack is thrown in for good measure.

There were a few unnecessary things added in, such as the Wolf attack. No wait, I take that back the attack wasn't so bad but you KNEW it was coming because of a very obvious (and almost out of place) scene about 40 minutes earlier. At times it seemed there was just too much story going on. For me the single biggest gripe I have with MANY movie happened here too, answer me this, why in the world if you were in a life or death type situation but you were holed up in a safe house anyway (especially one that was offering some first aid) If you had a big cut on your leg that was getting infected why would you not tell anyone? I don't know either.

All in all I say a good flick, certainly not movie of the year but it doesn't pretend to be. This is an all around fun movie that is made to be just that, and it succeeds I suggest a trip to the theater to see this one because really for a disaster flick that is the best way to see it.