Overplayed, inaccurate and ridiculous - an instant hit

Rating: 6/10 (5 June 2019)

You know what you're getting with a film like The Day After Tomorrow: after Earth enters an instant Ice Age "loosely based on climate change" through an unanticipated global storm (you read that correctly), one paleoclimatologist attempts to traverse the US to try and find his son. Weather-related events then ensue across the world, ranging from gangs of tornadoes tearing up cities to feral wolf packs roaming New York (you read that correctly as well).
Strangely, the cast for this story takes fewer liberties than the storyline: Jake Gyllenhaal and Dennis Quaid feature as the father-son duo and are the main focus of the film. However, you would be forgiven for forgetting their involvement in the movie, given the scale of events unfolding. The CGI'd environmental events just about passed the test at the time upon release, but given the 15-year gap since then, some of the larger catastrophes look slightly worse for wear (see "Statue of Liberty survives 93m high tsunami" for details). Realistically, there's not much more to see here than random events and a few misplaced romance scenes.
It is important not to take this film seriously in any way, otherwise you risk becoming part of the demographic that hates this film for precisely the wrong reasons. The Day After Tomorrow is good because its bad - its merit is through forcing the most ridiculous environmental catastrophes all into one film, under the impression that everyone is at risk. Some people (worryingly so) use this film as an example not to ignore global warming; whilst their intentions are true, I don't really think this can be classed as a piece of literary merit.