I don?t know when making of such disaster movies will come to an end in Hollywood, which has used all the living creatures animated and all the five elements of nature to cause such disasters. If it is fire in Independence Day, it is water in the Day after tomorrow. This time the sky and water are the elements causing such huge disasters. May be we can expect the whole Newyork destroyed by earthquake in his next film in which we can see the liberty statue splitting into two equal halves and falling down in opposite sides.
There are some aspects, which make even such repeated versions of disasters worth watchable, they are:
1) A logical and acceptable new concept of disaster
2) A neat characterization and cast
3) Lot of human values and emotions jelled with the screenplay amidst the destruction such as Love, sacrifice, patriotism, betrayal, soberness etc.,
4) Logical screenplay
5) Thrilling moments that takes the audience to the edge of their seats
6) Technically sound and SFX at its best with new ideas in visuals
Concept of Disaster
Anyway there are no elements left out to try out something new and hence the element here is the same water again which has been dealt many times before in various forms. ?Day after tomorrow? from the makers of Independence Day and Godzilla is all about green house gases, global warming, drastic climatic changes and the earth reaching the ice age.
A scientist expects it to happen after some 100 years and he submits his predictions regarding this in a conference meeting held in Delhi. Immediately after the meeting, they see a drastic change in the climate of Delhi followed by Tokyo, Scotland and finally the ultimate target of the movie Newyork. Quite a logical and an acceptable concept and the movie have a fresh background to deal with. But the plot in the foreground the father-son relation and his rescue mission is where the flaws start to flow.
A Neat Characterization and Cast
Such movies have very less screen time to register the details about the lead characters. So there should be some strong short and crisp scenes to establish all the characters in the screen and it has to register well in the minds of the audience to grab the interest of and taken the emotions of the characters more closer to the audience.
This movie fails in this aspect. No character is well detailed and so denies to register in our minds and so no emotions shakes our mind and no performance stays in our mind when you leave the hall. The characters come and go as a part of animation and visual effects and lacks soul. Even the fully animated movies evoke some emotions in our minds these days but in such an era it is so pathetic that the director could not do the same with living human beings in the cast. The cast performances are okay but not up to the mark.
Human values and emotions
Human emotions and a drop of tear can better elevate the effect of any huge disaster than any grand visuals with brilliant SFX. The movie fails in this aspect also. Yes off course there are all human emotions but it doesn?t strike the right chord to emote the audience. It also has sacrifice, love, father-son relation, boy-girl love, helping tendency of the heroine, doctor-patient emotions but everything fails to emote because of poor casting, characterization, performance and no any scene that strongly registers their relationship.
1) Actually when the scientist comes after crossing lot of barriers (???) to rescue his son you must feel happy as they are but not even a small jerk happens in our minds. Why? Because there are no scenes which shows him facing difficulty in reaching the place and it seems anybody can walk and reach that place and so it doesn?t leave a big impact like rose rescuing jack from the E deck in titanic.
2) When an ambulance comes to rescue the doctor and the small child patient you don?t feel relieved of any tension as she feels. Why? Because the bond between the doctor and that boy is not well registered before.
3) And also sacrifice of the third man in the rescue team also doesn?t shake you. Why? Which is also because of the lack of details in characterization. Who is he? Why should he accompany him? It gives us a feel that he is intentionally included in the team to show some ?sacrifice? on screen.
Thrilling moments
The wolf-chasing scene inside the ship, which is added to fill some thrilling moments in the screenplay, doesn?t serve the purpose. The initial scene in Antarctica where a fellow jumps between two parts of the ice is badly executed and lacks thrill. I thought that everything is going to break into pieces due to freezing and cracking when they run out of the ship towards the library but it disappoints big time.
Even the scene in which the girl tries to save a Chinese lady and her child and again goes to take the bag containing the passport when water is flooding the streets, it lacks thrill due to predictability. You know well what is going to happen and even how it will be executed visually as we have seen such moments in many other movies before. These scenes doesn?t brings you to the edge of your seats instead you lean back well on the seats thinking ?how many times we will watch such stuffs?.
Logical Screenplay
All the above would have been a positive aspect of the film if the screenplay is somewhat logical and believable. The director asks us ?What do you mean by Logic??
The ship reaching the library after steering through the bends in the streets, the scientist reaching the library through walk on the ice beds and that too in such an extreme climate, the sudden disappearance of cyclones and the sudden appearance of clear sky, what happened to predictions of scientist which is why the boy stayed there in the library, the books alone remain warm when everything around even the walls of the structures are freezing and cracking and many more logical errors are there.
Even after lot of drawbacks there is something to make your money worth and it is none other than SFX - Cinematography ? Sound design ? Usual Background Score and here are those scenes
1) Initial formation of twisters and the destruction caused by them.
2) The rise in sea level and floods inside the city.
3) The plan view of whole Newyork and the liberty statue frozen into ice.
4) The initial Antarctica scenes in which a scientist drills the ice
5) As usual the flying cars in the streets of Manhattan due to forced water stream
6) The scene in which the buildings and other structures starts to freeze and cracks
If you like really like some SFX and stunning visuals which we have seen many times before, go and watch it only in theatres because you may not get the same effect in CD?s and if you watch it in CD?s I am sure you will fast forward many scenes.