Too much Hollywood in the second half, but still something to see

Rating: 7/10 (28 April 2005)

I always like to go and see Roland Emmerich films, that's real popcorn cinema to me. Since I liked the preview too, I was surely going to see it.
This film shows how the northern hemisphere gets thrown into a new ice age, thanks to global warming, that will melt most of the north pole's ice, which in turn will make the gulf stream stop. Chaotic weather, with tornadoes by the dozen, huge storms and temperature dropping by a hundred degrees in the centre of the three continent-wide storms destroy our civilization. The southern half of the US of A have to run for shelter in Mexico (where it's just snowing, nothing else), and the northern states just have to sit it out. Same in Europe and in Asia, which gets barely mentioned (apart from a few seconds in Scotland). That's the first half of the film. I really liked that a lot! Great effects, and it all sounds not so wrong. There was plenty of stunning scenes, and a good tempo.
The second half of the film then simply became like so many other catastrophe films. The one scientist who was warning of what will happen, is in Washington DC, and his sun is stuck in New York, sitting the winter storm out in the central library. Daddy has to go and rescue him. Certainly he will make it.
As usual with Emmerich (good for his wallet), the end was a bit too much Hollywood, too happy end, but okay. I just wish it would have been him finding his son and that group and them setting out (still on snow-shoes) to go to Mexico or wherever. End scene them disappearing into the snowy landscape. Full Stop. But no, certainly the good US army had to fly in with their good helicopters to save the good people, and hundreds if not thousands of other good people that suddenly appeared on the rooftops of the skyscrapers of NYC. Where did they survive? No one knows. Why did they not set out to go to the south, like the majority of the library group? No one knows. Did they have the same knowledge as the remaining group in the library, being warned by the ONE scientist who understood what's happening about leaving? Definitely not.
I give the first part 9 and the second part 5 out of 10 = 7 overall points!