Not a disaster

Rating: Null/10 (30 May 2004)

Disaster movies used to have a localised focus: "The Towering Inferno", "The Poseidon Adventure", "Twister", "Titanic". More latterly though, the whole world has been in peril: "Armageddon", "Deep Impact", "Independence Day". However, as the budgets have got bigger and the special effects more dramatic, the scripts have remained dire and the acting indifferent.
"TDAT" is no exception - and we would not expect anything else from Roland Emmerich, the director of "Independence Day". Actually Dennis Quaid is not that bad as the climatologist Jack Hall who assures his son "I will come for you!" - a line borrowed from "The Last Of The Mohicans". But the science is very confused and the timescales utterly ridiculous. In so far as there is a plot, it is totally formulaic: a political establishment that is selfish and short-sighted and - as in "Deep Impact" - a father who has neglected his parental responsibilities and a teenage romance to reflect the average age of the typical American cinemagoer.
However, the fundamental message - that the US cannot go it alone on environmental policy (or lack of it) - is well-made and there are some none too subtle, but still telling, political points about the overbearing role of the Vice-President (a Dick Cheney lookalike) and the need for tolerance of migrants.
Above all, though, one judge movie of this specific genre on the effects and here Emmerich delivers. From the opening sequence with a huge crack in the Antarctic ice, the visuals are stunning and, by the end, the destruction of New York City by Godzilla (another Emmerich production) has been totally outclassed and overawed by the flooding and freezing of Manhatten which are superbly done. In short, the movie is not a disaster but rather cool.