Great effects and indifferent plotting

Rating: 5/10 (4 June 2016)

Another lacklustre offering from Roland Emmerich, the German director who last scored with the ultimate Hollywood blockbuster cheese-fest, INDEPENDENCE DAY, in 1996. Since then we've had the abominable likes of GODZILLA and the Brit-bashing antics of the Mel Gibson starrer THE PATRIOT, but nothing that equalled the spectacle or splendour of Emmerich's earlier offerings. So comes THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, an unsurprisingly cheesy, and surprisingly disjointed, Hollywood effort that blows the bucks on special effects, and offers a sub-par script and a mindlessly derivative plot along with it. The film starts off well, with killer hailstones in Japan and tornadoes in LA, but after the first hour things fall apart so quickly that you're reminded of the game Jenga.
The film is chock full of plot holes and flaws, including scenes where Quaid impossibly treks across America and survives out in the storm, when even the Empire State Building falls (he's clearly stronger than a huge building) and a laughable interlude where our heroes must face down the most poorly animated killer wolves that I've ever witnessed; like the "superstorm" itself isn't bad enough! There's the usual combination of sorry sentiment and cheesy action, although the proceedings are bolstered by the appearance of Jake Gyllenhaal, although the proceedings are clearly below an actor of this calibre; give him something decent to work with next time! Ian Holm returns to the screen after a serious illness, and whilst I welcome the return of the actor, I'm sorry to say he's relegated to a minor role as a British weather expert (along with Adrian Lester) who disappears about halfway through, presumably dead.
The film works a lot like that. There are loads of loose ending and not much that ties up very well; it just kind of ends at an anti-climatic emotional moment that feels nothing like the adventure that has come before. So, then the reason to see this movie at all is obvious: the special effects. Sadly, some viewers (myself included) may feel cheated as all the 'best bits' are in the film's trailer. Shots of New York City being swamped by a massive tidal wave are excellent value for money, as are the flying buses, random pedestrian deaths, and the fearsome freezing ice which'll kill you in about five seconds if you're unlucky enough to get caught in it. So there you have it, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW: a disappointing adventure movie recalling the '70s disaster flicks, in which cliché rules the day.