After our initial apprehensions about this movie being a remake of the bestseller by the same name were displaced, we settled with the hope that it is a product after all from the makers of I-want-to-destroy-New-York-City brand of movies, Independence Day, and Godzilla. At the very minimum, a cataclysmic destruction of New York was anyways expected, thus, our initial interest in the movie was held on Special Effects which the director has already demonstrated in his other destructive ventures.
Only this time, he takes natural disasters, very naturally and assumes that catastrophes are just around the corner if you live up-state New York.
So, in the middle of nowhere, which the director claims as a ?UN Convention for Climate? at New Delhi (paradoxically, why would someone hold a climate conference in one of the most polluted cities beats me ? fashion statement mayhaps?), the vice-president having a striking resemblance to Dick Cheney (or who knows, given his disappearances from white house, it might actually be him), addresses a scientist who wars about global warming which will bring artic cooling and engulf world into ice age all over again. (Of course, the convention being in India, neither there is a single Indian in the conference, nor, err, what was the vice president of United States doing there in the first place?). Later, we shockingly discover that indeed it is snowing in New Delhi ? If wishes were horses, sigh!
Anyhow, weather gods take the scientist?s prophecies rather too seriously and act upon it with utmost vengeance ? so you have three super gigantic hurricanes being formed in the northern hemisphere, threatening to take over most of northern hemisphere and plunge the world into ice-age.
So while at one end, ice begins to break at Antarctica, hurricanes with humongous force drag the temperatures from stratospheres (???) to sub zero temperatures in matter of seconds, freezing everything in its way to ice age, which the scientists claim will last for few hundred years. Anyhow, given the brouhaha of such cataclysmic events, the center of attraction is yet again New York, which is bracing for the storm, and more importantly the scientist?s son is trapped there ? and a father has a ?promise? to keep to his son ? ?I will get to you!?.
So while whole world and sundry is heading south, the crux of the story is how a father reaches New York to reach his son, while his son and his few followers, and a lady love, manage to wither the ice age. Of course, for what purpose defies me.
Why would you want to see this movie then?
-- You like special effects, which actually are pretty good to say. Indeed the cyclonic storms are breathtakingly beautiful to watch? err. ..In, cinemascope only. Though I wish I had a storm surrounding my work place for first 5 days of the week perpetually.
-- You like trashy Hollywood ?summer? movies which give you chills thrills and frills. Only in this case, the chill in New York never thrills you enough, instead might just frill you enough to leave the theatre with a head-ache and head home to real world, and possibly gallop a head-full of aspirins to warm you.
-- You actually believe that temperatures can drop 13 Degrees per second ? and in no time you are seeing temperatures of -200 degrees?
-- You actually love to wonder that a father survives the ice age sitting in ice and sleeping through it, while continents above him, people are dying by the hundreds?
-- You actually believe that humans can beat the speed of air! Proof ? at the cataclysmic moment of the movie, the son and his friends are running across the library hall, behind them everything is freezing to ice. Of course, our heroes are one step ahead of the ?icy? wind.
-- You love seeing New York destroyed. After the initial brouhaha about climatic disorders, you are willing to believe that New York is the birth and death of civilization, and that only people that mattered were New Yorkers.
-- You love the humor when Americans turn refugees and head to Mexico since it is one of the safe places of world which might escape the cold wave?
-- You love the fact that just when the storm passes New York City, it simply puffs away and weather is all beautiful and sunny. Ditto for other parts of world too (Yea, did I remind you earlier that there were three hurricanes targeting strategically to cover entire northern hemisphere?)
-- You love watching bad performances, cliché dialogues and over done situations of man against a government not willing to listen to until last moment thing. You also love the mush when lovers declare love towards each other while the world is freezing.
-- You love the fact that when you are frozen up cold, your girlfriend undresses you and then presses her body towards you to ?transfer? heat from her body to you to warm you up. And then also ask ? ?how do you feel now??
Or simply the dumb fact that you actually cancelled plans of watching Shrek 2 and bought the tickets for this movie online, without bothering to check a single review of the movie?