Embarrassing to those who really care about our world..

Rating: 3/10 (18 January 2005)

A typical Roland Emmerich movie, is the way to best describe this film. All effects, poor plot, And more appealing to popular U.S. sentiments. Normally I wouldn't watch a film from Roland Emmerich cause of those very reasons, but this time he was boasting about his intentions to arouse interest and concerned about our environmental state. Sadly this director's habits survived even in this film.
Roland Emmerich is indeed a shocker of a director, he likes giving the audience a breathtaking shock or two in his scenes, which is not a bad thing, however he seems to expect this to replace a poor plot, cardboard characters and general humanity. The special effects were of prime quality of course, The best part in the entire film is the series of tornadoes leveling Los Angelis, And seeing New York getting buried in Ice. But this accounts for 2% of the movie, The other 98% accounts for a paper thin script, ridiculous fillers and sub par acting. Dennis Quaid however was a pleasant surprise as he seemed to gain some respect for acting over the years, he seemed to be embarrassed to be doing this film yet he was credible in this film. Sir Ian Holm also brought the only dignity this picture has.
While something along the lines of what is portrayed in the film is possible with the escalation of pollution. People in general know that it is preposterous and doesn't help the cause of environmentalists one bit. Seeing tornadoes causeing destruction as well as floods and freezing is something we've all seen. Even exaggerated beyond measure in this movie, but what makes this film embarrassing for Environmental sympathizers is the small scope seen in the film. How the U.S. has 'again' a feel good climax and touching realizations, yet the rest of the world is utterly hopeless. An environmental crisis of this magnitude would affect the world as a whole. Roland Emmerich decided the Americans want to see Americans and to hell with those 'other people'. Waveing the star spangled banner at the end, even when there is nothing to be proud of.
I do not doubt Roland Emmerich had good intentions with this film. Unfortunately old habits die hard with this filmmaker, and while he did cash in this film, It failed with it's mission. It turned into a 70's style disaster film instead of an eye opener about the real problems of the world. And became laughable instead of concerning. Try again Roland...