Enjoyable if you don't think too much

Rating: Null/10 (6 December 2004)

WARNING, POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD
When The Day After Tomorrow first hit the theaters, I didn't see it because I was skeptical about the quality of the movie. I thought it would be 5 minutes of action and 2 hours of foreshadowing and pointless talking. I couldn't have been more wrong. Although I did enjoy the movie, it did not come without flaws. First the bad, then the good...
For one thing, the entire height of the movie was incredibly anti-climactic. Here we've sat through an hour and 30/45 minutes of intense physical drama, when the "climax" of the movie is completely emotional!!!! Sadly enough, this does not follow the themes of the movie at all. Another thing which severely downplays the climax of the movie, the rest of it is so jam-packed with physical trauma and action, it all drowns each other out, resulting in somewhat of a monotonous movie for a long time. If you have too many heightened action-packed sequences, the audience no longer responds to them in the way that they should.
Also, the character development wasn't that great. In a disaster movie such as The Day After Tomorrow, the surrounding peril should bring out the true character of the person, and the movie did this to an extent, but it wasn't nearly as powerful as it should have been considering the atmosphere of the movie.
Now the good. Obviously, the special effects are top notch, and the storyline is somewhat enjoyable if you don't continuously search for flaws. The first few disaster scenes are very well done except after that, it all becomes a blur of snow and wind and ice, nothing in particular standing out. The relationship between Sam and Laura, while unnecessary, gave the actress, Emmy Rossum, more screen time and added much needed realistic human drama (along with about 10 minutes to the movie).
I enjoyed how Roland Emmerich portrayed the storms like a monster, especially in one of my favorite little gimmicks. When I think, Dennis Quaid is talking on the phone and static comes up, it sounds exactly like a villainous laugh, like the storm is laughing at us because we can't compare with nature at all.
Overall, a fun movie if you just take it for what it is, a decent disaster movie. Don't expect a great piece of work, but just sit back and enjoy watching it. I give it a B-.