How to deal with the issue of climate change with a sledge hammer

Rating: 3/10 (22 October 2013)

2004 was a year in America when it appeared that the conservative right held all of the power and the issues of the environment was being conveniently ignored by the captains of industry so it is not surprising that Hollywood came out with a movie that effectively dealt with the issue of climate change with what is effectively a sledge hammer. Not only do the president and the vice-president look like Dick Cheney and George Bush (respectively) but the movie was tries to suggest that this is a issue that needs to be confronted immediately because the impact of our destruction of the Earth could cause wide spread destruction faster than we can blink.
It is just a shame that the events in the movie are just so unrealistic. My suspension of disbelief was pretty much destroyed when the tornadoes touched down in Los Angeles, and while the tidal surge in New York was visually spectacular, once again it is simply so unrealistic that it pretty much ends up undermining any message that this film might have. I remember that the Greens back in 2004 arranged a screening of this film, and in the end those who believe in climate change are unlikely to change their views, and those who don't, probably walked out of the cinema laughing.
Basically, after the storm surge in New York, the film pretty much becomes dead boring, to the point that I simply want to go to sleep. Further, this film is a carbon copy of those 1970s disaster movies that we all loved, except that they threw a bit more action (such as the completely unrealistic hail storm in Tokyo, and the aforementioned tornadoes that completely demolish Los Angeles, which seems to be in the movie simply for an excuse to completely demolish Los Angeles).
It is also interesting that they suddenly decide to have a scene where all of the Americans are fleeing over the border into Mexico and, guess what, the Mexicans decide to close the border, so America, as a way of appeasing their Southern neighbour, decides to forgive their debt, not that there is anything left of the United States after the end of the film. It is also funny that the whole event causes Dick Cheney, oops, I mean the vice-president of the United States, to have an epiphany (which is too late) that maybe being a climate change skeptic was a bad thing (as if the complete debacle that was the war in Iraq caused them to have an epiphany – especially since they are still trying to defend that particular adventure, and are saying that the Arab Spring of 2011 was a result of the war in Iraq, not that the Arab Spring has actually resulted in the people of the Middle East and North Africa actually having a better life).
Visually, for the first half, this film is pretty good, but after the storm surge in New York, it simply becomes another disaster movie that really does little to advance the cause of man-made climate change.