I've Seen Worse, But I've Also Seen Far Better

Rating: 4/10 (2 June 2004)

Saw this opening night. I've seen worse, but I've also seen far better.

The good:

Some of the effects are just downright amazing (the quick-freeze was very cool).

The whole Scottish weather station crew was a very poignent element of humanity that brought home the devastation of what was happening far better than the big set pieces.

Americans escaping across the border into Mexico was funny. The throwaway line about how the president finally got the Mexicans to open the border was the only real laugh producer of the night.

Kenneth Welsh does a pretty mean Dick Cheney impersonation.

The overhead storm views were amazing.

Mankind doesn't save the world, for a change; a lot of people die in this movie, just like they do in real natural disasters.

The bad:

Jake Gyllenhaal is badly miscast here. Unlike Tobey Maguire (with whom he's often compared lookswise), Gyllenhaal does not make a convincing teenager; it's clear he's far too old for his part and thus his blossoming romance with the teenage girl is a bit creepy.

The acting as a whole is horrible (Welsh is the major exception). Yeah, you don't go see a movie like this for the acting, but I'd like it to be a little better than actors reading-a-script-and-collecting-a-check-level.

The kid. The stupid, dying cancer patient kid. The worst subplot of the entire movie.

Most of the CGI is just bad. The wolves get singled out for a lot of the criticism, but the LA tornadoes were just as bad and in many ways far worse.

The political message isn't hammered heavy-handed until the very end, but boy, does Emmerich make up for lost time.

Overall: The kind of movie where seeing it once is enough. I expect to see a massive second week box-office drop-off.
4/10