Good fx, bad characters

Rating: 6/10 (7 June 2004)

The end of the world is approaching in director Roland Emmerich's latest big budget disaster movie. In this film, scientist Dennis Quaid's predictions of global warming spurring a new ice age are ignored until it happens and half of the U.S. is destroyed.. Emmerich again displays his nack for big budget destruction, with some impressive visual effects sequences showing Los Angeles and New York City being destroyed.. Unfortunately for the film and the audience, the "human element" which the story relies on doesn't work quite as well with indie film actor Jake Gyllenhall seemingly at a loss while trying vainly to play Quaid's son... trapped in the New York Library with his fetching would be girlfriend (Emmy Rossum, who gets to look pretty but not much else). Sela Ward shows up as Quaids wife, and gets to take care of a sick cancer patient in the most pointless and exploitive subplot in the film. Basicaly for an action movie, there isn't much action.. No one really does anything about the impending disaster, they mostly react when it occurs.. I got a bit bored between scenes of destruction... even having the president and vice-president be such comical parodies of our current administration didn't quite work for me, much as I enjoy a good anti-Bush joke as much as the next guy.. Anyways, as a cautionary tale.. OK.. the fx are good... too bad the story doesn't really work. GRADE: C-