'Tomorrow' subsists another typical end of the world movie, with an explicit political message

Rating: Null/10 (14 June 2004)

Director Roland Emmerich's 'The Day After Tomorrow' is merely another typical end-of-the-world film, with an explicit political message.
The story follows Climatologist Jack Hall (Denis Quaid) whose prediction of another ice age, due to global warming disrupting the Atlantic current, happens far sooner than hypothesized. Almost overnight, freak storms begin to ravage the whole northern hemisphere, with tornados in California, hail the size of softballs in Japan and a gigantic tidal wave in New York City.
As the storms get worse, Hall must convince the president to evacuate the country into Latin America, and then he must trek from Washington DC to New York to rescue his son (Jake Gyllenhaal) who got stuck in the thick of this new ice age.
The plot carries a blunt message of global warming and how we can't continue to exploit our natural resources or Mother Nature will fight back. The film also includes an ignorant vice-president that strikingly resembles Dick Cheney.
Although some of the weather in the movie seems authentic, most of the special effects are hyperbolized, synthetic-looking storms in which the main characters always seem to miraculously escape. At times it became ridiculous as to how extreme and quickly this ice age happens.
The only thing more artificial than the storms, are the movie's effusive lines. In their efforts to capture the compassion felt in a disaster, this poorly written movie becomes a schmaltzy mess of forced dialogue. For example, in one scene, J.D. (Austin Nichols), the jerk who was trying to steal Gyllenhaal's crush, tells Gyllenhaal to 'tell her how you feel.' They simply tried too hard to make it emotional and powerful.
On top of this, 'The Day After Tomorrow' is filled with dry characters and a clichéd family plot, with the father always being absent on his research trips, and breaking his promises to his son.
It is crammed with side plots that are never completed. A little boy with cancer at the hospitable where Hall's wife works is waiting for his parents to call, but soon his parents are forgotten. J.D. is trying to contact his little brother, yet he too is forgotten.
The plot's predictability annihilates any bit of tension they try to build. In fact much of the film ended up being humorous, most of which is unintentional.
The film's cinematography is mediocre, although there is one brilliant scene when a janitor in LA is the only one left in a skyscraper after the tornadoes hit. A greenish light streams in from the torn walls behind his silhouette, as he walks to open a door and finds the wall missing. He stands there many stories off the ground and looks out at the ruins of Los Angeles.
At more than two hours long, 'The Day After Tomorrow' is a clichéd, saccharine and boring attempt to show the world the possible (yet Hollywood-ized) effects of global warming.