Nature is no respecter of feelings...

Rating: 6/10 (8 June 2004)

... or for that matter, relationships; nor it seems, logic! This isn't meant to be as harsh a criticism as it possibly sounds. The shortcomings in logic are most easily dismissed - the movie was meant to be nothing more than an impressive CGI spectacle, so the fact that resorting to the 'fantastical' is sometimes too easy for the makers to resist should come as no surprise. Ordinarily though, I'd find myself a little peeved when a movie also prefers to skimp on the verisimilitude of emotional drama. Strangely enough, however, this time that didn't harm my goodwill toward TDAT.
With such a shortened timescale as the film (again) erroneously presents, emotions may well be condensed and virtual strangers could easily find themselves compelled to behave as if they'd known each other their whole lives - in the context of events, these four days ARE their entire lives!
My only real complaints were that I felt the relationship between father and son wasn't really established well enough for it to later become the emotional fulcrum of the picture. This isn't a slight upon the performances of Quaid and Gyllenhaal, for they are fine - but if it's decided that mere human oiks are going to be secondary to dwelling on destruction wreaked by the elements, then don't try to manipulate our sympathies for them by the end of the disaster! Similarly, the characters alternately get a little corny/triumphalist at the denouement; something I found hard to stomach given that footage which stems from mankind's ignorance is lingered over lovingly by Emmerich regardless. Still, who expected Hollywood to have a sound ecological conscience? Not me, and despite the contradictions between "this could really happen!" versus severe artistic license to make it more entertaining, this still remains a decent enough time.