Quite impressive

Rating: 8/10 (30 May 2004)

I'm not a fan of this genre. I went solely on the strength of the trailer which tweaked my interest. I'll sit through most anything that has a giant tsunami. (What can I say?) But after seeing the film, which I thought was thrilling, I decided the negative reviewers were just a bunch of sour-pusses.
The film is tightly paced, convincing in terms laid out in the film (those who criticize it's "science" didn't seem to have the same problem when reviewing "Independence Day"...someone explain that to me), a plot that sets up the sole reason we bought a ticket (to see impressive special effects...and these are stunning), and to have a good time.
I worried that I'd seen the whole movie in the trailers, but there's a considerable wealth of images that are in store for the ticket holder. Particularly, images from the Space Station were stirring. And a sequence on a Russian tanker was surprisingly tense.
The audience I saw the film with were quite sober. There wasn't laughter (laughter at) except during the times the film invites laughter to break the tension.
There's a post-apocalyptic 9/11 burn to the film that isn't exploitive. But after learning that real disaster can happen in New York City, it's difficult to see even more, even though this is fantasy. So the film has an emotional depth that isn't necessarily earned.
These are cartoon figures which the genre demands; otherwise we'd be thrown into the unbearable state that films like "Testament" (1983) illicit. We're not in the theater for a lecture, any more than we "learned" something about cloning from "Jurassic Park" or life on other planets from "Independence Day." This film was as much fun and as visually important as the "Jurassic Park" series, and I hope everyone will give it a go. (Environmentalists who are picketing the film need to direct their efforts toward Congressional leaders...not movie producers.)
In my experience it far out paces "Earthquake," "Poseidon Adventure," and the leaden "Towering Inferno." I even think this is more successful (as a work of film art) than "Independence Day" which was cloying in it's nationalism. Here, we're given a fairer portrait of our Washington leaders, and those who feel it's "controversial" because it shows a "strong" Vice President seem to be the same people who are complaining about the "science." If this film is meant to criticize any particular administration, it's a very lame jab. The Vice President in this movie is a stock character in these kinds of films. If you're offended you're being way too thin-skinned (or perhaps defensive).
Have fun. Go see it. It's a great popular entertainment.