Smoke and mirrors, all flash and no substance

Rating: 4/10 (3 January 2005)

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Sound formats: Dolby Digital / DTS
Utterly routine blockbuster, loosely based on scientific predictions of disastrous climate changes due to global warming, in which the Gulf Stream is essentially 'shut off', triggering a series of freak weather conditions (giant hailstones in Japan, tornadoes in Los Angeles, tidal waves in New York, etc.) which culminate in a new Ice Age. Dennis Quaid is the obsessive climatologist who struggles to convince sceptical authorities of the impending catastrophe, and who is forced to rescue his son (Jake Gyllenhaal) after the boy becomes stranded in Manhattan following torrential floods and the subsequent Big Freeze. Industrial Light & Magic unleashes a wealth of attention-grabbing visual effects during the film's impressive opening stretch, effectively sidelining the crudely drawn characters and half-baked melodramatics, but the superficial script (by Jeffrey Nachmanoff and director Roland Emmerich) fails to sustain the initial momentum, and the second half becomes bogged down in Quaid's ho-hum rescue mission.
To be fair, the movie DOES contain a number of awe-inspiring sequences (the massive wave which rises from the ocean to engulf New York; the view from space as three colossal storms circle the entire northern hemisphere of the earth; a trawler floating serenely down a flooded Fifth Avenue), and a couple of satirical jabs are surprisingly potent (most notably, the mass exodus of American citizens INTO Mexico!), but the movie amounts to little more than smoke and mirrors, all flash and no substance.