An utmost entertaining modern disaster movie with a very important message

Rating: 8/10 (16 August 2007)

The Day After Tomorrow tells the story about a select few who has to endure and fight for their lives to survive a new ice age brought on by global warming. What this film has going for it the most are the special effects which are absolutely mind-blowing a majority of the time, not to mention how stunningly believable they are.
The film also offers a good story about courage and the importance of working together to overcome obstacles, told with the genre conventions of a good disaster movie. It feels like a good change that for once the main characters are everyday people (a homeless man, young students etc), while the people with the supposed power like the president and the Dick Cheney-lookalike vice president are little more than fools. The forces of the weather are a little bit too much even for the president of the United States, who can do nothing real when faced with the reality that he has ultimately helped to create.
The greatest achievement of this film is however Roland Emmerich's way of putting the very important message of the environmental issue, into this high-concept film without doing it too obvious. Still, perhaps it's a bit too much in your face since I believe this is the main reason why people don't like this film. The average moviegoer doesn't want to be told that their lovely cars that they drive around in every day can cause a big disaster. People don't want to be told to be aware of the environment in any way, and just go about their business consuming the way they are used to.
My only gripes with the film: 1. Jake Gyllenhaal doesn't look even one tiny bit like a 17-year old. 2. The wolves look fake. 3. The three Scottish persons saying "For England!".