Oh well! Being one big hollywood flicks admirer, I simply couldnt wait for this movie to hit the local cinemas. The snippets in the promos were awesome. The teasers of this movie were gripping. The theme of the movie (major doom on earth) sounded interesting enough, how well did the director of The Patriot, Godzilla & ID-4 depict this one on the screen is what I went to watch. I was not at all disappointed.
Synopsis:
Ice shelves cracking, Snowing in New Delhi, Multiple tornadoes ripping LA apart, Hailing wild in Tokyo, A major hurricane heading to doom NYC , Cold wave killing people in Scotland ... Ocean waves surging like crazy, Temperature dipping 10 degrees per second, Climate dropping to - 150 degrees. All this catastrophe happening on earth at some point of time, visioned by an obsessive climatologist, whose warning was taken too lightly has now zillions of people ’dying to survive’.
Review summary:
Climatologist Jack Hall and his companions Frank and Jason witness the breaking of an entire shelf on the Antartic in one of their research trips. Later Jack addresses an international conference on global warmingin New Delhi, where he explains how his theory could mean that the planet could be heading into a new ice-age. His theory is deemed ’’insane’’ by many, including the vice-president of the US. Soon enough, the globe starts to witness ’’bad weather’’ all over, at the same time. Jack wasn’t expecting anything thats even remote to his theory to happen anytime soon, but its happening anyway. Almost the entire Northen Hemisphere is about to end up buried under hundreds of feet of ice, not before a tragic devastation of life.
By the time Jack’s mate Professor Rapson detects and informs rapid drop in temperature in the North Atlantic, its already snowing in New Delhi, multiple tornadoes are ripping LA apart, Tokyo is being relentlessly showered by hails the twice the size of tennis balls, there are reports of choppers and planes crashing due to very fast and VERY freezing cold waves and a major hurricane heading to doom NYC ... where Jack’s son Sam is, at that very moment. It dawns upon Jack that he hasn’t been living much of a family life as he looks through old photographs with his wife Lucy, a dedicated doctor, hoping to hear from their son Sam.
Chip to NYC and theres Sam with his crush Laura, who were there on a school field trip. After an almost near to death experience where he saves Laura, he manages to call his folks. The regretting-his-past dad quickly informs Sam the ’’do’s and dont’s’’ to survive until help arrives and also makes a promise that he’d overcome all the odds and rescue Sam. Also at the same time, he has to well-inform & convince the president of the US to do what can possibly save as many, if not all of the people.
Well there, you have it, for those who are into characterization. Its fair enough to have this much in a catastrophe movie, unless you want the movie to look like a documentary. Dennis Quaid plays his role well as a work obsessed father. Sela Ward did justice to her bit in the movie playing a doctor who would not leave her patients to die, at the cost of her own life.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays all cool, pun unintended, during all this chaos just to be with his love interest Emmy Rossum & take care of her. Others in the cast who have their bits have performed quite contentedly. Realizations strike when doom heads your way, thats quite well said, fits in well with the Human Kind as well as Individuals.
Graphically, the movie is mother of all disaster movies. No non-sense visual effects and awesome photography is what the flick is all about. Scenes where people are being ’’frozen to death’’, Oceans are surging into the city drowning people, Tornadoes forming etc leave you gripped. Added with sound effects, its an edge of the seat & breath taking entertainment.
The film is worth seeing for its enormous sculptural cloud formations alone. The view of the planet from a space station from point-to-point in the movie just leaves you amazed. Director Roland Emmerich, has worked this movie through to be a ticket bought to be worth it.
For those interested: ’’Do not watch this on DVD / Wait for the cable operator to play it’’, watch it in a movie hall near you, asap. This is certainly not a movie for who watch a Sci-Fi Disaster movie and are lost and are wondering ’’Whoa! How the hell did that building fall?’’ You may have seen a Tornado movie, you may have seen a Hurricane movie, you may have seen a Hailstorm movie ... you want all in one? Go for it ... The Day after Tomorrow.
Certificate: U
Genre: Science Fiction, Drama, Action.
Duration: 120 minutes.
Cast:
Professor Jack Hall: Dennis Quaid;
Sam Hall: Jake Gyllenhaal;
Terry Rapson; Ian Holm;
Dr. Lucy Hall: Sela Ward;
Laura Chapman: Emmy Rossum;
Jason Evans: Dash Mihok;
Frank Harris: Jay O. Sanders;
Crew:
Director: Roland Emmerich;
Story: Roland Emmerich;
Visual effects supervisor: Karen Goulekas;
Director of photography: Ueli Steiger;
Music: Harald Kloser.
Distributor:
20th Century Fox.