A brave attempt, but it falters with the story and other basic film principals

Rating: 6/10 (16 June 2006)

The Day After Tomorrow is a rather entertaining film which combines good CGI and character development and mixes them up into a film containing elements of a rather delicate subject; namely global warming.
Unfortunately, the CGI and character development is all that this film has going for it when it comes to the basic principals of good film-making. The whole 'moral message' about the global warming and stoppage of environment destroying is made very obvious, very early on. This is rammed into our faces with some very disorientating montage sequences, very early on in the film with various natural disasters occurring through out the world. From the beginning, we are immediately shown some of the flaws this film has. It moves from one thing to the next at a confused pacing and annoying things like this crop up at various intervals.
The early montage scenes, as I've mentioned, are very sudden. There is no real build up to these scenes; it's just random hail in Japan amongst other things in other places. Here, a bit of character build up would have worked so that we can sympathise with the people going through hell thanks to the weather, but there isn't any so we don't really care that much and this detracts from the experience. Another thing is the editing, which is sloppy. I can understand shaky camera work in a moment of panic and chaos but only if it's from someone's point of view. In this scene, it's just blurred and too chaotic to even notice/care what the hell is happening. Some patience and some build up would have worked.
Another thing is that the initial disaster of the tornados around L.A happens a little too early on for me. The film makers were probably a little eager to show off the CGI, but they had the chance to do that with the earlier scenes, of which they could have executed a little better. Here, it seems L.A. is eliminated and just brushed aside for the rest of the film in an odd message from the director consisting of: 'Right, here's the shock and awe of the weather in this film. Something as big as L.A. is gone so forget about it'. We don't find out what happens in the aftermath and in the end, the whole attack probably didn't even need to happen to advance the film; as I said - it was merely a show off.
During the bulk of a film, especially a thriller like this one, you need some suspense or build up. In The Day After Tomorrow, there isn't any. One half of the characters in the film are attempting a rescue mission, the other half are staying in the same place for the entire film. That's not going to work. The only real fight the hero(s) have is the chase on the large boat against the wolves which floats into the city, in fact the wolves, in their brief appearance, are actually more of a match for the hero(s) and are more 'frightening' than the weather is.
So, you get the idea that this film is rather slow in the middle and after a good beginning (bar the ridiculous early montages) it falters further and further before stumbling over the finish line with a bit of a silly ending. The character development is good but with the un-thrilling middle this film has, that's all the characters CAN do: talk. One good thing that this has through out is the CGI. Right from the beginning, the opening track shot of the ice glazier leaves you guessing whether or not it's actually real! and this momentum and consistent superior CGI is maintained through out, rivalling that of other releases of around this film's time that contain CGI, so at least it's good to end on a positive note.