Global warming on a grand, grand scale!!!

Rating: 7/10 (9 July 2005)

Despite some of the negative comments, this is well worth seeing for the awesome special effects alone. I wish the armchair critics would stop trying to analyze the "logic" behind this project and sit back and enjoy a good blockbuster thrill ride, which is obviously the aim of director Roland Emmerich. It's not meant to be a serious documentary about global warming, for God's sake! Sure, there are plot holes galore and the scientific data is not completely plausible, but this was meant to entertain popcorn audiences on a grand level of spectacular special effects and stunts, and it succeeds brilliantly on that level, greatly aided by a pulsating background score that accentuates the shocks and a soundtrack that gives all the visuals an extra punch.
My chief complaint, if we must insist on logic, is the fact that we have to accept the idea that a scientist would decide that he must walk to New York from Philadelphia at the height of the most drastic weather the world has ever known. This is where the script really requires the viewer to forget reason and concentrate on the stormy weather and chillingly spectacular photography.
Clearly, this is meant to be nothing more than spellbinding entertainment for the masses, not a serious treatment of global warming despite such pretensions. Enjoy the awesome effects and forget logic. The viewer has to realize it's all in the realm of impossibility anyway--so stop nitpicking every little scientific point and enjoy what is meant to be riveting entertainment.
The performances are all competent enough, nothing deep required. Dennis Quaid, Emmy Rossum, Sela Ward and Jake Gyllenhaal bring some humanity to the proceedings and make us believe in their dire predicaments. The understated romance between Rossum and Gyllenhaal is nicely handled. And speaking of the cinematography, the opening shot under the credits is one of the most visually stunning achievements in the whole film.
Sit back and enjoy the thrill ride!! Yeah, baby, it's cold outside!!