The summer blockbuster isn't what it used to be!!!

Rating: 4/10 (2 June 2004)

I used to look forward to the summer blockbuster season. The movies that come out at this time are usually big, loud, and fun. Now they are just big and loud. I always go into a Roland Emmerich flick not expecting too much, he puts together a big spectacular show, but as far as a memorable story, he falls short. This film is being sold as a movie with an environmental message, global warming is basically going to plunge the world into a new ice age. I have nothing against a movie trying to inform, but it is when a movie insults my intelligence is when I tune out. Dennis Quaid stars as a scientist that warns that the earth is dangerously close to a global climate change, he does this at a summit where he chides the VP of the United States(who looks very much like Dick Cheney!), of course this guy does not want to hear about this, he's an evil Republican!!!LOL. As far as the FX, though I agree that they a competently done, are not as groundbreaking as one might think. At one point, Los Angeles is virtually destroyed by a bunch of tornadoes. The effects here are on a larger scale, do not look as convincing as the tornadoes in the movie Twister. The other aspect of the movie are as average and predictable as you could get, Dennis Quaid traverses the northeast to get to his son that is in New York where the city is frozen. His son is played by a very bland Jake Gyllenhaal. I've always regarded him as a low-rent Tobey MacGuire. Though the movie is never boring, it moves slowly, it's not as compelling as it should be. I'm not going to complain about all the scientific BS that is inaccurate because it would be a mute point. The incredible thing is that with a movie that has the "message " that it this one claims to have, its funny that you would have a scene of some astronauts in a space station looking down at the earth after the destruction and saying how clear the air looks, not a mention of the MILLIONS of people that perished,or even their own families!!!! What a half hearted , cheap attempt to pass this clunker off as a environmental statement!!!
Grade:C-