The Day after Tomorrow (2004)

Some CGI is good (the opening in this film isn't) and some is bad. Since this film has no other merits (nor goals it would appear) it's shocking to see it can't adhere to only good CGI.

The opening is as dull and predictable as all disaster-movies: Bad omen, short introduction of theme and characters (including smart but underrated scientist's ignored efforts at warning politicians), then disaster strikes naturally with a very known landmark (in this case the Hollywood-sign) being destroyed and they set up a simple story of a parent looking for their child.

Why would Denis Quaid take this part? It's the same shit as every big movie that doesn't bother to get a decent script. Busy, obsessive father that naturally is a good dad deep down (and the really smart and accomplished mother that still needs the dad to fix things), always too important things to do, and, in the end, right (after having briefed the president directly). The list of clichés go on: The pile-ups of cars (with the honking of course) both before and during their destruction, the smart youngsters that find quite simple solutions no one else has thought of, the dog, the arduous low-tech travel, the expendable friends dying to show that death isn't only about numbers (brave, self-sacrificing deaths of course), the couple finally admitting their love. Add to that some simple, untested, Al Gore-like truths and an oversimplified morale and this flick is dumb as doornails.

Toss in a cancer-ridden child (probably a tip from Steven Spielberg) without any relevance what so ever and weep for humanity. Not because the environment is killing us, but because this is what Hollywood is capable of.

The writing credits should have gone to Alan Smithee. Emmerich took them himself. Example: People are drowning in a taxi because the water is rising, and the cop stands there looking at them dumbly because "he doesn't speak French"? I hate the French as much as any, but seriously...? And in the end, the joy of the one (or perhaps three) is so great that we can all forget about the death of the millions... Yawn. And it ends with a morale so politically correct (and factually wrong) it just makes my mind crawl into a safespot and refusing to come out until this film is over.

There is a little suspense, and some good effects. The fact that Emmerich had enough left in his budgets to add some decent actors (that all should have known better) also makes the film suck a little less.

It would appear as if they made a two-hour film because someone had an idea for some cool shots of waves crushing New York... Much like the meteors in "Armageddon", just more.. Hmmm. Wet. Roland Emmerich has said he wants to continue only making big-budget disaster-films. Too bad he isn't any good at it.

3/10