The Day after Tomorrow

Review by Clint Morris

‘Big is Best’ undoubtedly seems to be the wile of most of Hollywood’s Summer blockbusters.

And, though that’s always been the case to some extent, when imaginative duo Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin entered the picture a few of years back with their ultra-budget eye-popping sfx bonanza Independence Day, everything of chubby magnitude prior to paled in comparison.

Since then, the tent pole flicks seem to be contra in an observable struggle to spend as much studio moolah as possible, blow up as many set pieces as feasible and ware to the bone as many Apple i-Macs as one can.

After the failure of his habitually pricey Godzilla (1998), The Day After Tomorrow marks a return to form for Roland Emmerich. Working without Devlin this time for a rousing, this is an eye-popping spectacular of special effects stained in the finest talent Hollywood had available the week of shooting.

Climatologist Jack Hall [Dennis Quaid] has just realised that the globe could be in big, big trouble. Seems global warning has triggered a rapid and ruinous shift in the planet’s climate and, one by one, cities are going to go crash, boom, bang.

Tokyo experiences grapefruit-size hail, record-breaking winds hit Hawaii, snow pelts down in New Delhi and tornadoes leave Los Angeles for dust.

Professor Rapson [Ian Holm], one of Hall’s colleagues stationed in Scotland, confirms Jack's worst fears: The weather change are symptoms of a global change, signalling the destruction of life as we know it and the return of the ‘Ice Age’.

In between trying to convince officials at the white house as to the importance of evacuating whole cities, Jack and two colleagues head (in car, and eventually, foot) to snowed-in New York where a father has promised his son [Jake Gyllenhaal] that he will come rescue him.

More of a companion piece to Independence Day than a remake, sequel or isolated effort, Emmerich’s film – like his previous effects – puts prominence on the outlandish special effects and CGI before anything else.

From giant hail crashing on Tokyo to a mammoth waterfall gushing through Manhattan, he’s utilised every ounce of computer magic and effects wizardry as was possible.

And although at times some of the razzle dazzle looks a little bit too much like it was created for a videogame and not realistic enough (CGI wolves are a case in point), there isn’t a scene that won’t be truly appreciated by at least three quarters of the popcorn-munching cinemagoers in the audience, hungry for some of that ‘big’ stuff.

As with Independence Day, Emmerich has filled his frame with some of the best actors around, only this time the characters seem a bit more ‘humane’ than say Jeff Goldblum’s geeky scientist or Bill Pullman’s gung-ho President.

Much of the credit should probably go to the always dependable Dennis Quaid.

One of the most underrated actors of his generation, Quaid takes what’s essentially a cardboard character and gives him standing, sentiment and some welcome qualities that the audience will undoubtedly find easier to back. Points also go to whoever suggested Jake Gyllenhaal play his typically timid but audacious teenage son. Together, they’re probably one of the movies best assets. Next to the effects of course.

What Emmerich’s been criticised about before with his previous movies is the clichéd characters and woeful dialogue and, unfortunately, both make an unasked-for return here.

The dialogue is very slipshod, wooden and as plain as the nose on your face, it’ll make the addressees feel as if the filmmakers are speaking to them like they were all relatives of Mike Tyson.

In addition, some of the characters (the rich kid who lives in an apartment loft alone, because his parents are away on business, for example) feel about as old as socks left by the heater.

Still, you’ve got to expect a certain amount of ‘dumbing down’ in a film like this. Not that that helps in our endeavour to disappear in the world created on-screen.

One aspect of the movie that probably could have been tinkered with though, is the third act. It’s as pedestrian as that Elvis impersonator at the local. Having blown up, sank and smashed everything within the film’s first hour, there doesn’t seem to be anything left for the characters to do in the last four minutes of the film but sit, wait, warm their hands, look out the windows and look – again – at the radar charts.

Okay, so it makes sense that the mega-storm would eventually subside, but the suspense and gripping nature of the film’s first half ostensibly hopped a cloud exiting the action too. Why?

Just one more punchy sequence nearer to the film’s end, and it would have been a much more captivating couple of hours. Even if they’d tie up some of the secondary characters storylines better (Sela Ward’s, who plays Quaid’s nurse wife, for example, or Holm’s remotely located professor) with the remaining time.

Still, The Day after Tomorrow is cinema at its loudest, biggest, most spectacular and funnest. Having said that, it has to be seen in a theatre though – one with a good set of speakers aligning the wall and a nice elongated screen – otherwise you won’t experience the full effect of the magnetic effects or thumping soundtrack, and are more likely to spot the staggered wood between the gorgeous reforest.

If you’re the type that doesn’t mind leaving your thinking tank with the usherette before the show though, you’re going to have one hell of a time, and get an economical ‘environmental’ sermon at the same time.

3.5 out of 5

The Day after Tomorrow
Australian release: Thursday May 27th
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy Rossum, Dash Mihok, Jay O.Sanders, Sela Ward, Austin Nichols, Arjay Smith, Tamlyn Tomita.
Director: Roland Emmerich.
Website: Click here.

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