Review of The Day After Tomorrow (2004) by Riren — 19 Mar 2007

Pseudo-science spins a new apocalyptic disaster story that becomes increasingly less likely as the movie goes on. All of the characters are archetypes (loveable poor guy; lovestricken handsome young man; indignant snob; headstrong cop; bitter scientist; et.

al.), so you can walk into this movie and know all you'll need to know about everyone without having to think. You'll have to leave your disbelief at the door, though, as you see wolves turned into maneaters after a day of freedom, and people literally running from cold that is creeping across the floor.

The computer effects are largely beautiful, and certainly deserve commendation. Unfortunately unlike other, older disaster movies, since cold is the killer here, prepare to see a lot of slower, more agonizing deaths, and more sad corpses - things that hurt the escapist entertainment of such a movie.

Its best point, like the novel World War Z, is the rare moments where this science fiction premise overlaps our real world and puts a creative spin on our current prejudices, like people illegally crossing the border INTO Mexico, or burning books for warmth.

If creative touches like that were more frequent, it might be a really good movie. As it is, it's a take-it-or-leave-it disaster movie that's somber entries into the genre are usually frantic.