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Tuesday 1 June 2004

Review: The Day After Tomorrow [brit]

The new Roland Emmerich (Mr. Independence Day) film, 'The Day After Tomorrow' broke last week and I snuck down to the local flicks to grab a slice of it. It was exactly as expected - a SFX-fest surrounding a fairly typical and lacklustre plot.
The SFX are as you'd expect mind blowingly good. I'm sure you've seen the trailer by now; the huge waves deluging Manhatten, and 'twisters' ripping six kinds of crap out of Los Angeles. In short, it's the SFX that makes this film watchable and as such, delivers on it's promises.
Being an Emmerich film, we're noticably light on any real substance since he's quite famous for the big screen effects led blockbuster; not one of which digs too deeply into any individual character because really, the film isn't there for that. Given the film's subject, it could have been a far more powerful commentary on the ongoing and very real issues we face insofar as environmental protection is concerned; yet really, the film's eco-message is simply an excuse to drown New York.
We have heros, we have misguided fools, we have danger and we have excitement - it's a textbook blockbuster title. It even manages to do what most blockbusters do, and effectively run out of steam as far as the plot is concerned about 3/4 of the way through; it's an almost tangible sensation... 'this is where they got tired/got bored/ran out of budget/etc'. Which is a shame, because up until that point, it's a right rollicking movie.
TDAT does exactly what it says on the tin, and is well worth the ticket price; if only because unlike other SFX led movies of late, it's scarily realistic and there's just something delicious about watching Lower Manhatten vanish under billions of tonnes of icy water :)

1 comment:

  1. Hmm well I reckon I've seen one too many disaster in lower manhatten as it is to be honest.

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