The Day after Tomorrow

Such has been the huge pre-publicity behind this futuristic disaster movie, it would be hard to ignore its supposed credentials. Brought to the screens by the team behind Independence Day and with a similar large-scale budget, ‘The Day after tomorrow’ or to give it, its full tagline : ‘Where you will be, the day after tomorrow ?’ (bland or what!), this two-hour eco-drama is like one of those tabloid scare stories where they try to suggest the end of the world is nigh because of a supposed influx of some new kind of giant bug.

The world isn’t going to end but sadly this movie starts. Despite its obvious pretence of looking like the real deal, don’t be fooled, this is one of the laziest kind of disaster movies because it makes no effort whatsoever to come up with an intelligent story.

The disaster begins with dark clouds looming, naturally. We’re told that due to global warming, the Polar ice-cap’s melting and this causes a change in the Atlantic currents and suddenly the world’s getting decidedly frosty.. A half-hearted attempt is made to suggest this is a global problem (shot of snow in Delhi, another of RAF helicopters out to rescue the Royals who for some reason have gone to Balmoral), otherwise though, its how lots of snow might affect America, cue truly great scenes of New York being submerged in water.

Emmerich’s take on the onset of an ice age is only to give us a kind of contrived tension – you know instantly who’s going to get off with who, who is or is not going to survive, we have to have manufactured heroism, politics for simpletons, an ice age that strikes buildings rather like the martian ships did in Independence Day, people making plainly obvious right or wrong decisions, and of course there’s a cute pet dog (this time owned by a tramp) and yes we have to spend endless scenes wondering how the dog will fare (like in that sort of situation would anyone truly care?)

Just like in Independence Day, the problem comes, the problem goes – it’s a like a neatly-wrapped disaster situation that has no basis whatsoever on the real facts (scientists have already pooh-poohed the probability of causal effects happening like they happen here) and its interesting how the writers even completely ignore a secondary disaster (flooding) and let the credits roll rather than take on too much death and gloom – this is Hollywood after all, can’t have people having nightmares. Its manufactured pap right down to Quaid as an climatologist walking over 100 miles in the snow just to save his son (oh and those with him) – his son played by Gyllenhaal, wasted in a movie like this. Only go if you’re really that curious to see what might happen in an ice age but don’t go expecting anything else because in terms of acting, writing, plotline and genuine emotion, the lights are on but no one’s home.

Matt Arnoldi