All Effects. No Substance.

Rating: 3/10 (5 December 2009)

Really the only thing I can recommend about this film is the special effects, especially a spectacular sequence of the destruction of Los Angeles. That part of the film is a technical masterpiece (and it's what they showed in the trailer for good reason). The first half of this movie is watchable just because of the special effects. Once you get to the halfway point, the effects start to slip a little bit (I felt the ice and water effects weren't that good) and once the effects go, the film goes.
The story and characters are all bland clichés. You've got a several people trying to save their broken families and coming together or saving each other at the end, which has been done a billion times. You have the passionate scientist who cares about people against the dickish politician, which has been done a billion times. You have a bunch of landmarks getting destroyed, which looks cool, but it's been done a billion times. And you have arguments of humanity vs. survival which have been done a billion times, and much better than they're done here.
When there are no special effects, there are one of two possible things going on. The first is broken families trying to survive (yawn). And the second is politicians arguing. Because when I think cataclysmic destruction of the world... my first thought is C-SPAN, and all the excitement of... watching senators, scientists, and yes-men getting annoyed with each other, making veiled threats, passionate speeches about what the other guy is doing wrong, and yelling about principles and matters of procedure which no one else really cares about.
In all, I was really bored by this and the political BS just got on my nerves. It's really not an interesting movie. And I did start to nod off towards the end when it got REALLY stupid (they have the happy ending that defies all logic, just to have a happy ending).
I could go into more detail, but I really just thought it was boring, especially after the half- way mark when the special effects started to look a little shabbier.
3/10 - If you want to see some cool effects sequences, give it a look. Otherwise, it's just really dull.