Spectacular shot of collapsing glass towers

Rating: 8/10 (19 March 2019)

Love that shot of the small plane flying between the two glass towers falling into each other, then past a crashing US Bank building. This may be because I work in the area and pass those buildings in downtown LA's financial district every day. I watch that sequence over and over again on dvd, after initially seeing this movie in a theater in 2009.
This is my favorite disaster flick, with terrific destruction on a massive scale. We see LA get destroyed, then Vegas and DC. That is, cities that lots of folks would love to see destroyed. We already saw New York get destroyed in The Day After Tomorrow. The computer graphics in this one are better.
And that's how I watch disaster flicks. The star of the show is the disaster. Enjoy that. Everything else is contrived to give us the best views of the destruction and to make us care about what happens.
Of course the plot is silly, with too many daring, improbable, just-in-the-nick-of-time escapes. It's merely a vehicle to show us the unfolding disaster.
Of course the characters and dialogue are flat and undeveloped. They just need to be likable enough to make us cheer them on. At least some of them. I, for one, am delighted that at least one billionaire jerk dies near the end. And yes, it is totally credible that "our" government and rich jerks would find a way to save themselves and not even let the rest of us know what's coming. They're doing it already, building expensive underground bunkers for the end of the world-for themselves. Complete with guns to protect them against the likes of us.
I liked the idealistic writer Jackson Curtis and Dr. Adrian Helmsley, and definitely cheered them on.
This is a fun, entertaining, fast-paced, and adventurous visual spectacle. Enjoy it for what it is.