Long, yet short, but entertaining enough :). *SPOILERS*

Rating: 7/10 (27 June 2004)

I went to watch this movie earlier today. I had no idea what to expect, as I had not watched the trailers nor followed any of the reviews that had been played over and over again on TV. However, I was pleasantly surprised.
The movie didn't feel as if it dragged on for a long time at all. I wouldn't say that I was at the edge of my seat throughout the movie either but looked forward to what was next in line. Thus in that sense, it captured my interest.
As a disaster movie, one can't expect much more than what it's supposed to portray. When you're smacked in the middle of a disaster, what kind of "plot" are you actually expected to have? Imagine yourself being in the middle of one... and think about the possible outcomes. Given that you are not allowed to portray the disasters and destruction caused by them, which you had just witnessed, will you see it as an interesting story to tell? Not really right? At the end of the day, it's a "I WANTED TO SURVIVE!" situation, where people are going to react spontaneously or not at all. Anything can basically happen.
TDAT is a simple story without many angles and is focused in the US but finds ways to hint that the issues relate to other countries as well. The government doesn't want to listen to the scientists; the scientists are of course more or less correct; incidents occur; the main man has to fulfill a promise that he has made and end of story. Where haven't we seen that before? But does it really matter? Life itself is filled with clichés. I believe its how a movie is willing to portray these clichés, which is interesting. And how many plots does one really want to focus on, in such a movie? One could of course focus on how different families would react to such an ordeal, due to their upbringing, environment etc. however, despite the lack of foreshadowing, that wasn't the point of the movie afterall :).
We're again in Manhatten and L.A. again. New York is up north and it happens to carry plenty of symbols. The Statue of Liberty for one, I believe, is a symbol of hope and people working together to find solutions for any ordeal. One good thing for picking such busy cities is that there's plenty of activity and most people are rather infatuated and caught up with their daily lives. With this in mind, the director probably threw a disaster upon them, just to watch how they'd react (some funny scenes there). It also added extra magnificent work for the CGI creators. The effects and cinematography were excellent, making the movie a 'cinema must see.'
The character development wasn't at its best. But it was enough to get to know the characters a bit. However, if one is expects to feel deeply for the characters, this is not the movie to watch. The characters are skimmed over, as the main issue of the movie after all, is the climatic shift, in which the whole world is in. I would have liked more character development but on the other hand, what I liked about the movie not having weighed a lot on this is that you get a better feel of what's happening everywhere else.
The script itself could have been better of course but then again, there's not much to say, when you're in such a situation, besides, "OH MY GOD!" or "LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT WAVE!" etc. I don't think it's a time to get all poetic now. Despite having its flaws, the dialogue was natural enough and had its humorous moments.
The acting wasn't too bad. Bits could have been done better, as I couldn't feel the hurt and pain. On the other hand, the camera didn't focus on that dimension, as anyone will notice, when watching the movie. However, there's a feel of anger, frustration and despair that arises in the movie, due to the conflicts between the characters.
The students in the movie created an interesting enough subplot. This subplot also gave rise, later on in the movie, to a rather exciting scene, which was nicely made.
I thought that the ending of the movie was pretty good, despite it "suddenly ending". However, the audience is after all expected to figure out what things are happening throughout the movie. The thought I had in the end was, "Mess with Earth and Earth will find a way to balance itself, even if it means the death to all of us."
The political issue was a rather amusing part as I saw it as what some would stereotypically call it, "Anti-American". I think that it's basically giving out a partial message reminding of how materialistic that many people in the world are becoming. So materialistic that anything which goes against their goals of being able to obtain these items, should be shot down; that they have end up looking at things in the short run.
With regards to the way the movie displayed stereotypes in the movie, I found it funny but OK. There are particular stereotypes in this world, which will set the audience's mind off into thinking, "Okay, I've seen X and I relate X to that culture." Thus in that sense, I thought it was okay, as the movie was probably trying to pace the introduction.
The musical score was beautiful. It had a bit of everything. It had similarities to some other soundtracks like Vertical Limit but that was fine.
Overall, I found the movie entertaining. If you're expecting a mind wrenching experience, this is not the kind of movie for one to watch in the first place. It could have focused more on the pain and so forth; how it feels like to be frozen, infected, etc. However, I thought that it was fine the way it was. I would give it a 7-7.5/10