Enjoyable enough, but don't look between the cracks or you'll see the sellotape holding it all together.

Rating: 6/10 (5 July 2004)

As a self-avowed fan of apocalyptic scenarios either in book or film, I couldn't help but enjoy this movie, even though I felt more than a little let down by it.
If you're looking for effects, then this film has plenty. But if you fancy a decent human interest story to go along with the destruction then I fear you'll be disappointed. The human side of the story is rather basic. A love interest angle for Sam Hall (Gyllenhall) and the obligatory struggle to survive. A father's love for his son and some hokum about a kid with cancer. Bland stuff.
Whilst the effects are worth the money, the plot really isn't. As I mentioned before, I still enjoyed the film, but it was sadly lacking any real depth or characterisation. Additionally, rather obvious plot developments (at least I think so) were ignored in favour of cheap thrill alternatives. For instance, in a life or death struggle for survival I think rather more people would throw off the yoke of civilization and use the situation to their advantage. I'm not talking looters here, either. But in a group such as portrayed in the movie, it might have been nice to see one person with his own ideas (however dark) emerge - a human vs. human conflict. Instead, the only threat our group faces (apart from the weather) is from a pack of wolves that, having escaped from a zoo, apparently turn immediately into a pack of ravening man-eaters. Ho hum.
Another nonsense concerns the girl who cuts her foot and gets an infection as a result. Not once during the steady onset of blood poisoning does she examine the cut or question why she doesn't feel too good. Duh!
And whilst I'm ranting, how many people would actually follow a traffic cop out into the frozen, icy outdoors, wearing nothing more protective than their everyday casual attire, on the basis of the fact that he was an official and told them they had to "head south". Absolute bollocks! No-one is that dumb. Even children aren't that trusting.
Another annoyance was the insistence of the director that there wouldn't be a Hollywood "happy ending". I'm not sure what I expected after I read this comment, but I doubt it was the evacuation of half of America to relative safety. That doesn't sound too apocalyptic to me. Nor did I expect to see the NY survivors thronging the rooftops of skyscrapers in their hundreds waiting for rescue by squadrons of helicopters who clearly had nothing better to do than fly around abandoned cities. How these people survived, when our heroic group only just managed it, is not explained.
There was a lot (and I mean mounds!) of juvenile writing that went into this script and a lot of final-scenes feel-good nonsense. Too much "man will prevail" rubbish from a director who promised us something better, then didn't deliver.
There are some nice visuals and some good ideas for the use of them, but the story is rather lame and best ignored by the viewer. If you do that, then it'll entertain reasonably well. But if you start thinking about the plot.......ewww!
I'll no doubt watch this again when it comes on TV but, having noticed the cracks, it's hard not to look into them and see the whole thing for what it really is - an excuse to use CGI a lot.