A guilty pleasure years ahead of its time.

Rating: 8/10 (7 May 2012)

I would give this movie a 10, but then nobody would believe me. If you want to see a truly bad end-of-the-world disaster movie, go rent "The Day After" or "2012" (Or one of the those old "Volcano" movies.)
All recent disaster flicks have outstanding special effects, but the story has to make some sense. I like ID4 but hate the sub-plots. Ditto for "The Day After" and "2012". A special effects "popcorn" movie has to be fun to watch. This one is. The earth destruction scenes work in this one. The disaster camera is not directly aimed at the Eiffel Tower, White House and pyramids (though it comes close). The Army's "secondary protocol" is logical. With the magic of DVD, it is possible to shorten this movie to a more watchable 2 hour length by skipping the 1/2 hour training and prep chapters. I believe that all the last-second near-misses are intentional, paying homage to Indiana Jones and James Bond films; and most of the humorous scenes are intentional also. Not so in other "disaster" films,including Titanic. So there is about as much "Techno-Talk" as the worst Star Trek Movies, and they made several mediocre ones. A bit far-fetched? Sure. Just turn off your brain, make some popcorn, and crank up the sound system!