How can people actually enjoy this?

Rating: 3/10 (29 May 2004)

This film doesn't even try to bring anything new to the Disaster Movie genre. Rather it re-hashes all the old cliched ideas but with visual effects that 'yes', look cool, but so what?
It amazes me that audiences can have a film with a bad script, poor direction, one-dimensional characters and hammy acting but still sit in awe at the dazzling computer graphics effects. For Christ's sake! It's CGI! It doesn't even look real and there's nothing that can't be done on computer these days.
'The Day After Tomorrow' started out promising (like 'ID4') as an entertaining pop corn flick but it quickly flat-lines thanks to Emmerich's poor attempt at trying to put some symbolic meaning behind his story with some indigestible dialogue and a very unsubtle warning about out environment. I guess this is his justification for spending so much money on this dog of a film.
1998's 'Deep Impact' did everything 'The Day After Tomorrow' did only better. 'Deep Impact' was moving because it had good performances, real life human conflict and utilized the CGI as the 'icing on the cake'. While for 'The Day After Tomorrow', much like Lucas' newer 'Star Wars' films, the visual effects are the cake while script, characters and all the other human ingredients needed for a film are the icing.
This film is a shining example of what's wrong with film today and it's audiences. People need this hollow form of escapism to get them through their daily lives. If the film had some real life characters we actually cared about, I guarantee it would flop or come under the same criticism as 'Deep Impact' for being too slow. I wanted to like this film but it had nothing to offer and ended up turning into an utter snooze-fest as I watched characters I didn't even give a stuff about being chased by CGI wolves - dear or dear.
SCORE 3.5 out of 10