The film The Day After Tomorrow opens all over the country today. I've been dreading the release of this film now ever since watching a little preview of it at a local theater six months ago.
Ever since I was a child and even as a teenager I loved the disaster film genre. Flops or not, campy or not I saw them all. The Hindenburg, The Poseidon Adventure, Airport (and all of its sequels), Earthquake, The Towering Inferno, The Cassandra Crossing, Two Minute Warning, King Kong, China Syndrome, Rollercoaster and Hurricane are all classics. Let's not forget The Swarm, A Night To Remember. Later, as an adult, Outbreak, Independence Day, Armageddon, Twister, Alive, Titanic, Volcano, Dante's Peak, Deep Impact, The Core. Even 10.5 on tv.
Disaster movies can be great escapist entertainment but when it comes to New York City, especially after 9/11, the effect on me is absolutely visceral and frankly, it upsets me a lot more than say Kansas City blowing away in a huge tornado. I just can't stand seeing my city in any type of danger or distress.
Even though Roland Emmerich's Independence Day (1996) was a hit, in general, his other films have failed to wow me (remember Stargate and Godzilla?) The cast of The Day After Tomorrow, however, is great (Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ian Holm) and i'm willing to give it a go even though that whole sub-theme of the father traveling to NYC, battling the elements and endangering his life and others in the process is not only overdone but a bit lame.
The critics are also all over the map on this one. Everything from "fatuous, great special effects, campy, impressive, funny, loud, jaw-dropping, falling short of Independence Day, poignant, insulting to the audience's intelligence, political, left-wing". Scientists are backing the film and even Al Gore has gotten on the bandwagon to support its theme of global warming.
I'm still unsure as to whether this film's realism will engender activism but in the end, even after debating for six months whether or not to go see this baby and even with most critics bashing the movie the cinephile in me won. I'll be there later today to be horrified and entertained. I can't wait!