Big budget balderdash (but fun!)

Rating: 7/10 (25 November 2009)

Let's be fair, you know what you're going to get with Roland Emmerich. You're going to get two things - vast quantities of death and destruction, and some vague human interest to give you an emotional stake in it. So what we get is kind of a noughties version of Irwin Allen, only with CGI instead of miniatures.
This time it's John Cusack's turn to play a cipher of a dad who is trying to rescue his estranged family from the fate awaiting the rest of the world. That's your plot, folks. There isn't even the ecological preaching from The Day After Tomorrow. No, you get some scientific balderdash in the first five minutes, and that's your lot.
This is very much a "put your brain on hold and enjoy the eye candy while you munch your popcorn" movie. It doesn't bear close examination on any level whatsoever (where did the ash from the Yellowstone Park eruption go? Anyone?) but the eye candy is wonderful.
As usual, Emmerich overplays the "narrow escape" card, particularly during the drive out of Los Angeles.
There is a particularly irritating character who keeps insisting he can't fly planes despite the fact that a) he can and b) if he doesn't then he and the rest of his group will die within the next 30 seconds.
This is big budget trash, but highly entertaining nevertheless.